DIETETICS 401 



following combination of proximate principles must be 

 absorbed per kilo of body weight : 



Grms. Calories 



of energy. 



Protein .- . about 1*200 yielding about 4'920 

 Carbohydrates . 5*000 20-500 



Fats . . . 0-400 3720 



29140 

 That is, the horse when resting requires about 30 Calories 



of energy per diem per kilo. 



When hard muscular work has to be done by the horse, the 



diet may have to be increased to something like the following : 



Grms. Calories. 



Proteins . . . 2'300 about 9'500 



Carbohydrates . . 12'500 50'000 



Fats . 0-800 7-500 



67-000 



which, in proportion to the weight, is about the same as that 

 required by a man doing hard muscular work. 



The consideration of the manner in which this supply of 

 nutritious matter is to be given in hay, oats, and straw, etc., 

 must be left to the teacher of stable management. 



2. Ruminants. In feeding ruminants, three different objects 

 may be aimed at. In this country oxen are fed to fatten them 

 for food ; cows are fed to yield milk ; while sheep are fed with 

 the object of obtaining their wool, and, in the second place, of 

 preparing them for food. 



Feeding of Oxen. The main purpose here is to make the 

 animal convert the cheap vegetable proteins and carbohydrates 

 as rapidly and completely as possible into the more expensive 

 animal proteins and fats. As we have already seen (p. 386), 

 it is much more difficult to get an increase of protein in a full- 

 grown animal than an increase of fat, because of the tendency 

 on the part of the animal to decompose any excess of protein 

 in the intestinal wall and liver and to excrete the nitrogenous 

 part. But in growing animals the power of laying on protein 

 is very much greater. Therefore the diet of young cattle, say 



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