GENERAL FEEDING 471 



of these foods fed for a short time may prove very helpful 

 in fitting yard horses for spring work, in stimulating the 

 milk flow in a cow whose stomach is out of tone, and in 

 toning up the digestion of cattle and other animals near 

 the finishing period, when it has become deranged through 

 over-heavy feeding. No sooner, however, is the object ac- 

 complished, than all such feeding should cease. Tonics 

 long continued cease to be operative both in men and lower 

 animals. 



The findings of the experiment stations would seem 

 to be based on the untenable view that they are foods, 

 and they have so been fed to animals in good health. The 

 idea of feeding them as foods is far from correct, as the 

 amount of nutriment which one feed contains is not worth 

 mentioning. But those who compound them have no right 

 to complain, as they usually speak of them as foods. 



Nearly all feeders of long experience use more or less 

 of such ingredients, but not necessarily in the proprietary 

 form. More frequently probably they buy two or three 

 of the more important ingredients and compound them at 

 home. Such preparations should cost less than proprietary 

 foods, but the makers of the latter have a very great ad- 

 vantage in the opportunity they have to purchase wholesale. 

 In any event it would seem that such foods should yield a 

 reasonable profit to the owner when sold in large lots at 

 not more than 5 cents per pound. It is not necessary to 

 use more than a few pounds of the costlier ingredients to 

 make 100 pounds of the mixture. 



The place for self-feeders. Self-feeders have been 

 used in feeding cattle, sheep and swine, but more com- 

 monly they are used in feeding sheep. They are simply 

 covered boxes of any desired length and width, but wider 

 at the eaves than at the base. They are supported by legs 

 or frames and may be stationary or movable. They have 

 troughs along one or both sides as desired, the bottom of 

 the trough being on a level with the bottom of the box, and 



