68 FEEDS AND FEEDING, ABRIDGED 



body weight is large for a mature fattening steer. The more rapid 

 gains of young animals are due to several causes. They consume 

 more food per 100 lbs. live weight and thus have more food left to 

 make gain after their bodies are maintained. Young lambs fed cow's 

 milk have even stored nearly three-fourths of the protein, over 90 

 per ct. of the calcium, and about three-fourths of the phosphorus sup- 

 plied in their food. The flesh of young animals is more watery than 

 that of older ones. Hence, each pound of the gain they make con- 

 tains less dry matter than in the case of older animals. 



II. Fattening 



The object of fattening. — ^Ye all know that the lean meat from a 

 well-fattened animal is better flavored and more juicy and tender than 

 from a lean one. This improvement in the quality of the lean meat, 

 and not the storage of thick masses of fat, is the main object in fat- 

 tening animals before they are slaughtered for meat. To some extent 

 during growth, and especially during fattening, fat is stored in the 

 lean-meat tissues, chiefly between the bundles of fibers of which the 

 muscles are composed. This storage of fat, which forms the so-called 

 "marbling" of meat, adds to its tenderness, juiciness, and flavor, be- 

 sides increasing the digestibility and nutritive value. 



What fattening is. — The fattening of animals is what the term im- 

 plies, chiefly the laying on of fat. Many years ago Lawes and Gilbert 

 of the Eothamsted (England) Station,* by analyzing the bodies of 

 animals slaughtered at various stages of fattening found that the in- 

 crease of steers when nearly full grown was about two-thirds fat, and 

 only 7.7 per ct. protein and 1.5 per ct. mineral matter. With pigs 

 the proportion of fat was even greater. The younger the animals are 

 when they are fattened, the greater will be the storage of protein and 

 mineral matter. This is shown in the following table, which shows 

 the results of experiments at the IMissouri Station.^ There is first 

 given the composition of the carcass of a 748-lb. steer in thrifty grow- 

 ing condition, followed by the composition of the gains made by sim- 

 ilar steers during fattering. 



Composition of un fattened steer and gains during fattening 



Fat Protein Ash Water 



Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. 



Carcass of unfattened steer 18.6 18.8 5.7 56.4 



First 500 lbs. of gain 48.6 11.9 2.0 37.6 



Second 500 lbs. of gain 75.6 5.2 1.5 17.8 



4 Jour. Roy. Agr. Soc., 1860. 



5 Waters, Mumford, and Trowbridge, information to the authors. 



