244 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED. 



Net nutrients. The portion of the digested part of the food 

 that remains after the amounts required for mastication, digestion 

 and assimilation have been used up. It is this portion only that is 

 of real value to animals and furnish material for building up of 

 tissue or elaboration of animal products. 



Nutritive ratio. The proportion of digestible protein to the 

 sum of digestible carbohydrates and fat in a ration, the per cent, 

 of fat being multiplied by 2 1 /4, and added to the per cent, of 

 carbohydrates (fiber plus nitrogen-free extract). 



Organic matter. The portion of the dry matter which is de- 

 stroyed on combustion (dry matter minus ash). 



Oxygen. A chemical element found in a free state in the air, 

 of which it makes up about one-fifth, and in combination of hydro- 

 gen in water; oxygen is also a rarely- lacking component of or- 

 ganic substances. See carbohydrates and hydrogen. 



Protein. A general name for complex organic compounds 

 mainly made up from the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 

 nitrogen. Crude protein includes all organic nitrogen compounds, 

 while true protein or albumenoids (which see) only includes such 

 nitrogenous substances in feeding stuffs as are capable of forming 

 muscle and other tissue in the animal body. 



Ration. The amount of feed that an animal eats during twen- 

 ty-four hours. 



Roughage. The coarse portion of a ration, including such 

 feeding stuffs as hay, silage, straw, corn fodder, roots, etc. Con- 

 centrated feeding stuffs are sometimes called grain -feeds or con- 

 centrates, in contradistinction to roughage. 



Silage. The succulent feed taken out of a silo. Formerly 

 called ensilage. 



Silo. An airtight structure used for the preservation of green, 

 coarse fodders in a succulent condition. As a verb, to place green 

 fodders in a silo. 



Soiling. The system of feeding farm animals in a stable or 

 enclosure, with fresh grass or green fodders, as corn, oats, rye, 

 Hungarian grass, etc. 



Starch. One of the most common carbohydrates in feeding 



