o FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



animals, while they are wholly unsuited to other classes of 

 the same. Such, for instance, is cottonseed meal. It is one 

 of the very best concentrates that can be fed to beef or 

 dairy cattle, and one of the worst that can be fed to swine. 

 In fact, with the latter it seems to act like slow poison. 

 Field roots make a grand food for growing cattle and sheep, 

 but in large quantities they would prove too laxative for 

 horses. Oats are unquestionably the best concentrate that 

 can be fed to horses, but they are quite unsuited to the 

 digestion of young swine. Coarse fodders may answer quite 

 well for store cattle somewhat advanced in age, whereas 

 they would be quite unsuitable for calves if fed equally 

 coarse to them. The successful feeder must, therefore, 

 give careful heed to the adaptation of foods for the needs 

 of the animals to which they are fed. 



The influence which foods exert on development and 

 production must also be carefully studied by those who are 

 to feed them in the most profitable manner. One food is 

 suited to development during the milk period, but is not 

 so well suited to the same at a later period, if indeed at all 

 suited for such feeding. Flax fed as gruel furnishes such a 

 food. While exactly adapted to the needs of the calf fed 

 on skim milk, it would be out of all proportion costly for 

 mature animals. Oats are admirably adapted to the needs 

 of the young calf, and because of their excellence for such 

 feeding and the relatively small amount required, they may 

 in all instances virtually be thus fed with a profit. For such 

 feeding they are much more suitable than corn. But when 

 animals are more mature and are being made ready for the 

 block, while oats if not too costly may form part of the 

 ration, a much larger proportion of it should be corn. Field 

 roots also are excellently adapted to feeding calves and 

 young stock, because of their excellence in promoting 

 growth of muscle and bone, but they would be too costly 

 to feed in large quantities to cattle that are being fattened, 

 nor would they be so suitable for producing fat as some 

 other foods. 



