ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 



up its mechanism. So complete are the tests 

 that it is demonstrated that twenty per cent of 

 the energizing value of the oats fed to a horse 

 is used up in chewing and digestion, while 

 experiments show that by keeping a horse in 

 a stall too cold for him, two pounds of oats 

 per day are necessary to supply the waste 

 caused by the cold. It is shown, too, that 

 while the horse makes use of only thirty-four 

 per cent of its food for working purposes, it is 

 yet much more economical than the steam 

 engine, which, at the best, turns less than 

 twenty per cent of its fuel, or food, into 

 energy. In Paris it is shown that the largest 

 cab company in the city saves two hundred 

 thousand dollars a year by taking advantage of 

 the facts developed in the tests of food values 

 for horses. One important feature is the sub- 

 stitution of corn for oats, the latter proving an 

 excellent food for producing energy. 



Years are being spent in some of the experi- 

 ment stations of the United States upon prob- 

 lems of animal-feeding, with results that are 

 proving of large economic value. How to pro- 

 vide the most satisfactory ration at the lowest 

 possible cost, and so avoid the well-nigh crimi- 



215 



