SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF FEEDING 225 



of feeding. In practice there is not the slightest need 

 to worry about the percentage of digestible, oil and 

 carbohydrates, or to calculate albuminoid ratios in the 

 manner described. Neither is there any need, as 

 nearly all text-books state there is, to study the 

 amount of dry matter or digestible fibre in a ration. 



All that need be considered by the practical man 

 in making up a ration is the amount of digestible albu- 

 minoids and the starch value of a ration. If these two 

 things are correct, there is bound to be a sufficiency 

 of non-albuminous food and dry organic matter in any 

 practical ration, a fact which seems to have been lost 

 sight of by writers of scientific text-books. 



Further, by only considering the two factors men- 

 tioned, and also by giving the actual weight of 

 digestible albuminoids and the starch value of such 

 quantities of food as are usually used in practice (in- 

 stead of giving the percentage composition only as the 

 text-books do) we can make a short cut in the calcula- 

 tion of food rations. In short, the whole science of 

 compounding rations can be boiled into such a simple 

 and brief calculation that any man. even a farm 

 labourer, can use the system. 



We now give a table, showing the total amounts of 

 digestible food ingredients, and the starch value of 

 different foods. The quantities of food stated are such 

 as are usually used in the daily rations for farm 

 animals. In accordance with what has been said 

 before, there is really no reason for the compounding 

 of foods to include anything more in this table than 

 the figures relating to the digestible albuminoids (pro- 

 teins is the same thing) and the starch value, but the 

 amounts of digestible oil, fat, and carbohydrates are 

 included in order to admit of useful comparison being 

 made between the different kinds of foods:— 



