54 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



maturity but not to earliest maturity on bulky foods alone ; 

 especially is this true of the two latter. But the best returns 

 in milk and labor cannot be secured without more or less 

 concentration in the foods fed. 



The digestive capacity is not sufficiently ample to give 

 the highest returns in milk in the one case and labor in 

 the other, notwithstanding that such foods may be fed in 

 equilibrium as to their constituents. When animals are 

 being finished in finest form for the block, the necessity for 

 concentration in the foods is greatest. As in the case of 

 animals producing milk and labor, they cannot consume 

 enough of the bulky foods to furnish a sufficiency of nutri- 

 ents to produce the milk required in the one instance and 

 labor in the other. On the necessity for a sufficiency of 

 concentrated food to effect the end sought is based 

 the universal custom of feeding grain in the instances named 

 in addition to the fodders. 



That the feeder who ignores the intimate relation be- 

 tween bulk and concentration in foods will pay a propor- 

 tionate penalty is easily shown. The breeder who grows 

 a heifer on foods too concentrated rears an animal so lack- 

 ing in stomach distension, that it cannot consume a suffi- 

 ciency of bulk products. The one who grows a beast on 

 foods too bulky for its tender age, has an animal with so 

 much of paunch that it will have an excess of waste in the 

 carcass for highest use on the block. Swine reared subse- 

 quent to the weaning period on pasture will not make suf- 

 ficient gains. Those fed during the growing period on 

 corn only, will not make sufficient growth. The necessity 

 for equilibrium in bulk and concentration in the foods fed 

 would seem to be about as important as the necessity for 

 equilibrium in the chemical relation of foods, and yet it has 

 been given much less attention than the former by the au- 

 thorities on animal nutrition. The relative cost of bulky 

 foods and concentrates respectively should be duly consid- 

 ered when feeding animals. Other things being equal, the 



