110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



But you will see at once that a food that is just right at one 

 time and for one animal would not be at another under 

 different circumstances. A dry cow needs a certain small 

 amount of the flesh-producing material to keep alive ; as 

 soon as she begins to give milk this amount must be largely 

 increased ; for the milk is as truly flesh as is the lean meat, 

 and requires the same parts of the food to produce it. A 

 young growing animal requires a larger proportion of the 

 flesh-producing part than a full-grown one, and an animal 

 working more than one standing idle. There is certainly 

 nothing difficult about understanding this ; it is just plain 

 common sense. 



Now, what are these two parts of the food? The heat- 

 producing part is the part which most nearly resembles 

 starch, sugar, gum, etc. The flesh-producing part is the 

 gluten of wheat or corn, and that part of other foods which 

 resembles gluten in composition. Chemically all these flesh- 

 producing materials are the same as the albumen or white of 

 an egg, and for that reason are called albuminoids. They 

 are also chemically the same as flesh and the caseine of milk 

 or the part that produces the cheese. 



When we speak, then, of the proportion of a ration, we 

 mean the relative amounts of these two parts, — the heat- 

 producing and the flesh-producing. All fodders are made 

 up of these two parts, but in widely different proportions. 

 If the amount of heat-producing is large as compared with 

 the flesh-producing, the fodder is said to have a wide ratio ; 

 if there is but little heat-producing, the ratio is said to be 

 narrow. 



From what has already been said, you will readily see 

 that it makes a difference in what proportions the food is 

 given. Farmers recognize the fact, though they may not 

 know the reason. A milch cow requires a great deal of the 

 flesh-producing food. No farmer would think of feeding a 

 cow on nothing but strawy and expect to get a large yield of 

 milk. He knows from experience that it will not produce 

 flesh. The chemist analyzes the straw, and says that the 

 digestible part consists principally of heat-producing material 

 with not much flesh-producing, the proportion being about 

 thirty times as much heat as flesh producing ; or we say it 



