IOO FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



fulfill their functions. Nutrition is not taken in sufficient 

 quantities from the food, hence the case becomes one of 

 starving in degree in the presence of waste. If such feed- 

 ing continues, the consequence will be more harmful, owing 

 to the tax put upon the digestive organs through feeding 

 to it excessive supplies of food. 



But should the animal have to labor unduly in getting 

 its food, arid notwithstanding, the supply secured is short, 

 the injury resulting will be correspondingly greater. An 

 illustration is furnished by animals on short supplies of 

 food when pasturing. Under these conditions every step 

 taken by the animal in excess of what is necessary to main- 

 tain health is taken at a loss to development or perform- 

 ance. The same is true of work horses who are made to 

 expend too much energy in masticating food not properly 

 prepared for them when taking their noonday meal in the 

 short space usually allotted to it. 



Discomfort frequently arises from requiring animals to 

 lie down on a bed which does not furnish the requisite 

 conditions of comfort. Any bed harder than earth which is 

 not furnished with bedding is too hard. The same is true 

 of any bed that does not furnish the resting animal with 

 conditions that will maintain the necessary bodily heat. 

 These questions call for consideration from those who use 

 cement or concrete floors, notwithstanding their excellences 

 in various ways. Yards in which steers are compelled to 

 lie down amid numerous clods formed from congealed ex- 

 crement furnish sleeping conditions adverse to well 

 doing. Damp beds for swine in cold weather will soon 

 produce physical wreckage, and these are even more 

 fatal to sheep. The degree of the loss from discom- 

 fort arising from allowing cattle that are being fat- 

 tened to wade in miry yards has been made the sub- 

 ject of experiment by some of the stations, and as 

 was to be expected, it has proved to be considerable. 

 Under some conditions ample supplies of litter may be dif- 

 ficult to obtain, but because of their absorbing powers they 



