210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



will not increase its muscular weight, but it will increase in 

 weight by the increase of fat throughout the entire body. 

 For this reason, in the later stage of feeding the increased 

 weight conies entirely from the materials which are the 

 so-called "fat producers," as sugar, starch, etc. Corn 

 meal stands tirst among our articles for that purpose. 

 Whenever the milk is not sufficient for our purposes, we 

 make combinations of grain to meet the same requirements. 

 That is, we have the same proportion, beginning with a 

 highly nitrogenous diet and increasing gradually the carbo- 

 hydrates as we did in changing the proportions of milk and 

 corn meal. Now, when we have not enough milk and corn 

 meal, or wish to go on with a larger number of animals, we 

 take first gluten meal and wheat bran in equal proportions. 

 In the first stage we take milk with two ounces of corn or 

 corn meal. In the next stage we take corn meal, wheat 

 bran or middlings and gluten meal, in amounts which 

 furnish a ration equivalent to one quart of milk and four 

 ounces of corn meal, — the same relative proportion. And, 

 finally, we take three or four ounces of corn meal, one 

 pound of middlings and one pound of gluten meal. By this 

 means we can supply the amount of food required for a 

 larger number of animals than the milk at our command 

 would afford. 



Now, a few words upon food. It seems to me it is most 

 important for farmers to understand and have a true idea 

 of what "food" means. In- our standard works the word 

 "food" is used in rather a broad sense, as meaning one 

 single constituent of food, — butter, sugar, starch. Such 

 things are not food in the proper sense of the word, — 

 they are constituents of food. A complete food for the 

 support of animal life requires three distinct groups of 

 substances. That is, each article of food should contain, 

 first, all the mineral constituents, which we chemists 

 sometimes call "ash constituents," because the only thing 

 left behind when we burn them is ashes, which is the 

 phosphoric acid, the potash and the lime of the mineral 

 constituents. Then comes a very important group of 

 substances. They contain as a characteristic the element 

 called nitrogen — with other constituents. We call them 



