64 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



to 0.9 pounds per day the first month, exclusive of the 

 birth weight. The second month 0.5 pounds would be a 

 good gain and even during the fattening period at from 

 six to nine months 0.3 pounds of increase is considered an 

 excellent daily gain. Well nourished foals of the draft type 

 may be made to increase 2 to 3 pounds per day during 

 the first month, but with them also relative increase becomes 

 slower as they grow older. 



Swine furnish an exception to this rule. During the 

 nursing period, it is scarcely possible to secure a pound of 

 increase in the young pigs daily. Subsequently, when from 

 three to four months old, they may be made to gain i pound 

 a day and even more, but after a time with them also pos- 

 sible increase lessens. Just why possible gains in swine are 

 greater subsequent to the weaning period is not absolutely 

 clear. It is possible that il? may arise from the inability of 

 the animal to take enough food into its relatively small 

 stomach to make such gains possible. 



Development and more food. That more food is 

 called for to make equal increase as age advances will be 

 readily apparent when it is called to mind first, that the food 

 of maintenance increases relatively as age advances (see 

 page 63), and second, that as stated above, the digestive 

 processes grow less and less active with advancing age. 



As has been stated, the food of maintenance increases 

 with advancing age. It is self-evident that a cattle beast 

 at the age of three years will take more food to drive the 

 machinery of digestion than the same at three months. It 

 is also self-evident, that if, as has been previously 

 stated and which is certainly true (see page 62), the diges- 

 tive processes grow less active and the waste of tissue .be- 

 comes greater with advancing age, that more food relatively 

 will be required to make increase as the animal grows 

 older. A point will at length be reached in development 

 beyond which increase cannot be made in flesh and weight, 

 and yet a large amount of food must needs be fed daily in 

 order to maintain weight, hence the folly of keeping such 



