Il6 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



have been equally famous at the pail have been relatively 

 few. Such feeding apparently disturbs that equilibrium 

 of the system which is equally favorable to milk-giving and 

 to breeding capacity. The energies of the system become 

 so centered on the former, that transmitting power is ap- 

 parently weakened. It has also been noticed that the 

 duration of the period of such production has been short, 

 seldom covering a period of more than two or three years. 

 It then materially declines, and no amount of skill can again 

 restore the equilibrium. The digestive machinery has been 

 driven at a pressure so high that it has become impaired, 

 and the period of profitable production in the cow has been 

 proportionately curtailed. 



Steady, prolonged and high production that does not in 

 any way impair or destroy equilibrium in the system, is 

 to be sought by the breeder rather than phenomenally high 

 production, spasmodic and short lived. The temperate zone 

 is to be preferred to either the frigid or the torrid zone. 

 Likewise the medium high production that does not call for 

 forced feeding to produce it, and that does not impair trans- 

 mitting power or in any way curtail capacity for prolonged 

 usefulness, is to be preferred to high pressure production, 

 transient in duration. Ten years of milk production in a 

 cow aggregating 60,000 pounds of milk, the outcome of 

 moderately high feeding, and a numerous progeny of good 

 performers is much more profitable than six years of milk 

 production aggregating the same, the outcome of immoder- 

 ate feeding, and a progeny not numerous nor capable. 



Exercise and usefulness. The bearing of exercise on 

 prolonged usefulness is both direct and far reaching. It 

 qualifies with a certainty that is unerring the degree of the 

 present good health that the animal shall possess, the extent 

 to which it shall possess stamina, the powers of reproduc- 

 tion and also the various functions concerned in production, 

 whether in the form of milk or labor. The degree of exer- 

 cise called for, however, differs with animals of the dif- 

 ferent species. Horses require the most and swine will 



