THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMALS 65 



animals longer for meat production, after they have reached 

 a maximum development. Even with immature animals, a 

 point may be reached beyond which development may be 

 so slow as to render further feeding unprofitable. 



But it does not follow that because more food nu- 

 trients are required to make a pound of increase as the 

 birth period is receded from, such increase necessarily en- 

 tails greater cost while making it. Frequently it does not. 

 The cost of such production is largely determined by the 

 relative cost of the foods used in making it, hence, even 

 though 25 per cent more increase should be obtained the 

 first year in the life of a cattle beast than is obtained the sec- 

 ond year, and though less food nutrients should be used 

 in making it, the relative cost of increase the second year 

 may be less relatively than the first year. This will cer- 

 tainly be true if the animal has been fed chiefly on whole 

 milk and concentrated foods the first year, and chiefly on 

 pasture and cheap roughage the second year. 



This difference in the relative cost of the foods fed in 

 making meat especially, exerts a far reaching influence on 

 profits. It explains why, under intensive conditions of 

 farming where foods are high priced, cows which only 

 furnish milk for their calves yield little or no profit, while 

 a substantial profit may be thus produced by them when 

 maintained under extensive conditions. It explains why 

 under some conditions, the quickest maturity attainable is 

 not always the most profitable, and it explains why it may 

 be more profitable in the end under some conditions to 

 winter cattle and other animals on a comparatively unnu- 

 tritious diet, in order to secure subsequent growth on pas- 

 tures that are very cheap or entirely free. 



Development and capacity. That periods of stagna- 

 tion in growth during development tend to lessen future 

 possible development has been proved by observation and 

 experience in unnumbered instances. This loss in capacity 

 may arise from a deficiency in the quantity of suitable food 

 fed, from feeding unsuitable food, from excessive feeding 



