74 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



Development and food. The character of the develop- 

 ment secured is influenced by inheritance, environment and 

 nutrition. The most potent of these is nutrition, which is 

 another way of saying that the most potent influence in 

 securing development of a certain kind, is the character of 

 the food used in making it : The food consumed influences 



1 i ) meat production in regard to quantity and quality ; 



(2) milk production with reference to quantity and quality; 



(3) the quantity and character of bone; (4) the char- 

 acter and abundance of the coat, and (5) the production of 

 energy. The relation between equilibrium or balance in the 

 development secured and equilibrium in the foods used in 

 making it, is of the closest character, as has already been 

 shown (see page 43). 



The bearing of food upon the production of flesh with 

 reference to quantity is so self-evident that it is scarcely 

 necessary to discuss it. Illustrations are readily found in 

 the contrast between the development of the calf that is 

 suckled by its own dam and the calf fed on whey, also in the 

 contrast between the yearling steer wintered only on straw 

 and the same animal the following summer, when grazed 

 upon plentiful pastures. The largest production will be 

 obtained from foods which contain the largest amount of 

 nutriment possessed of the most suitable digestibility and 

 fed with due reference to balance in the food constituents 

 and also bulk requirements or the opposite. 



Quality in meat viewed from the standpoint of the 

 table, has reference to fibre or grain, tenderness or tough- 

 ness, proportion of fat to lean, and the character of the fat 

 and the flavor. All these unless the last, are influenced by 

 inheritance and 1 to some extent by exercise, age and envi- 

 ronment, but less so in all or in nearly all these respects 

 than they are influenced by food. 



The fibre, composing the muscle or lean portion in 

 meat is sometimes large and coarse, in other instances, it is 

 fine. The former is present to a much greater extent in 



