THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Several valuable books have been written on the sub- 

 ject of feeding live stock, and those interested have reason 

 to be grateful to the men who wrote them. But the criti- 

 cism has been made, that some of these are too scientific in 

 their treatment of the subject to meet the needs of the prac- 

 tical feeder, that the discussions in some are so general and 

 diffuse and so lacking in sequence, that the labor involved 

 in securing specific information from them is too great, 

 and that others more specific in their methods of treatment, 

 are helpful chiefly to those only who live in areas where 

 certain leading foodstuffs are abundantly grown. The need, 

 therefore, for something additional on the subject will be 

 at once conceded by those who are familiar with its needs. 



Those who have thought carefully upon the subject of 

 feeding farm animals will subscribe to the statement, that 

 it is one of the most comprehensive and difficult questions 

 to discuss that pertain to the broad field of agriculture. So 

 comprehensive is it that in the judgment of the author, no 

 single treatise can cover a field so broad with sufficient 

 fulness. An attempt, therefore, will not be made to produce 

 such a book, as it must result in more or less of failure. 



To cover the whole subject the author has planned, if 

 spared, to write five books, the present being the first of 

 the series. In it the aim has been to prepare a work adapted 

 to the needs of the student and stockman that would suc- 

 cinctly and fully cover the subject of feeding and foods in a 

 general way, by dwelling, first on the leading principles or 

 laws that govern feeding ; second, on type in the animals to 



