GENERAL FEEDING 453 



The list of these foods includes all kinds of field roots, 

 as turnips, rutabagas, mangels, sugar beets, carrots, and 

 parsnips. It also includes such by-products as wheat bran, 

 oil cake of various kinds; such fodders as alfalfa and 

 clover ; such green foods as grass and rape ; grass in dif- 

 ferent stages of maturity and condiments of a salutary 

 character, as salt and mixtures that act as a tonic when fed. 



\11 kinds of field roots, bran and oil cake have a 

 tendency to relieve constipation and are possessed of high- 

 est value when fed with dry food, as straw for instance, 

 in winter. The real value of these foods fed to animals 

 on succulent pastures would therefore be much less than 

 the value when fed with foods that tend to constipate. Al- 

 falfa and clovers tend to correct digestion according as 

 they are fed. When fed along with a food too constipating, 

 they exercise some influence in correcting such a condition, 

 but when fed along with green food such as tends to 

 produce scouring, the effect is the opposite. Grass, rape 

 and also alfalfa and clovers fed in the green form in suit- 

 able quantities all tend to counteract constipation, but grass 

 more or less matured, on the other hand, tends to correct 

 scouring. Salt, though not a food at all in the sense of 

 furnishing nutrients, exercises, nevertheless, a salutary in- 

 fluence on digestion when fed in due proportion^ (see 

 p. 521). And the condiments referred to tend to stimulate 

 the digestive organs to increased action (see p. 469). 



The real value of such foods will vary in proportion 

 to the extent to which they tend to correct digestion. When 

 the necessity for such a correction is not present, the nu- 

 trients which they possess and the digestibility of the same 

 is the true measure of their value. Because of this, the 

 aim should be to feed them in a way that will add to their 

 value. Field roots, for instance, may be fed to the extent 

 of being a chief source of nutrition, but when so fed they 

 will probably prove relatively an expensive food, whereas 

 if they were fed in limited quantity as a corrective to di- 

 gestion, they would be found relatively a very cheap food. 



