XLII. STOCK FEEDING 



Objects of Feeding. The objects of feeding are: (1) to repair 

 the waste of the system and maintain life; (2) to supply heat; 

 (3) to furnish force and energy; (4) to provide the materials 

 needed to insure increase of flesh by growth or fattening; (5) to 

 make special products, such as milk, eggs, feathers, wool, etc. 



Kinds of Food. We usually classify food for stock as forage or 

 roughage and concentrates. Under the first we include cornstalks, 

 hay, straw, silage, tubers, roots, and all other foods which contain 



a large amount of 



crude fiber or water in 

 proportion to the nu- 

 tritive elements; while 

 the concentrates are 

 generally the seeds of 

 plants and their prod- 

 ucts which contain a 

 minimum amount of 

 crude fiber and water. 



In a more specific 

 way we may group the 

 kinds of food for stock 

 as follows: (1) albuminoids or proteids, (2) the fats, (3) the carbo- 

 hydrates, (4) mineral matter. 



Albuminoid or Proteid Feeds. Food substances like the white 

 of egg, the gluten of wheat, and the fibrin of meat, containing 

 nitrogen, we call abuminoids or proteids. These foods containing 

 nitrogen furnish the necessary elements for making muscle, bone, 

 horn, hair, blood, and milk. Cotton seed, cotton-seed meal, pea- 

 vine hay, cowpeas, soy beans, alfalfa, and all other leguminous 

 plants are rich in proteid. Proteids contain about 16 per cent of 

 nitrogen, so that if we know the amount of nitrogen we can calcu- 

 late the amount of proteids very easily by multiplying the per- 



291 



On a stock farm. 



