122 . FEEDING FARM ANIMALS* 



food fed as to its constituents, the degree of its succulence 

 and the nutrition which it contains. 



Some foods are less favorable than others to repro- 

 duction, because they are ill-balanced. An exclusive corn 

 diet is too highly carbonaceous. A diet consisting entirely 

 of sorghum is even more harmful. Other foods are in suf- 

 ficient balance, but their condition is too dry. Such is grass 

 of certain kinds, matured and dead. Others again are too 

 watery. Grass young and watery may have reasonable 

 balance in its constituents, and yet be too watery, as when 

 it induces a condition of the bowels so lax as to be unfa- 

 vorable to development for the time being. Foods in rea- 

 sonable balance as to their constituents, possessed of ample 

 nutrients in proportion to their bulk and withal succulent, 

 but not watery, are the most favorable to breeding. Thus 

 it is that cows wintered on a low and dry diet come in 

 heat after having fed for a long enough season on grasses 

 succulent and nutritious. It also explains why ewes act 

 similarly which have reared lambs after they have grazed 

 for a short season on well-grown rape. This explains also 

 why wild animals that breed once a year, breed only at 

 a particular season 



Any food that is possessed of the desirable nutrients 

 and that has a reasonable amount of succulence when fed 

 with sufficient liberality to improve the condition of the 

 animal will have the effect of hastening the breeding 

 impulse. This arises from the fact that food that tends 

 to build up the system stimulates activity in all the func- 

 tions of the same, including the organs of reproduction. 

 The knowledge of this fact has been turned to practical 

 account by the stockman. It has enabled him to hasten 

 the mating season with ewes after their lambs have been 

 weaned, and likewise the breeding of sows from which 

 two litters are sought each year. It enables the stock- 

 man also to modify the season for breeding. This has 

 proved of great practical service in connection with the 

 breeding of cows. 



