FOOD REQUIRED BY STOCK 



249 



menters, if allowance be made for the superior fattening 

 qualities of the English stock. Probably at the present day 

 both the estimates of the amount of food required per diem and 

 the rate of increase should be raised, because of the improve- 

 ments that have been effected in the breeds of our sheep and 

 cattle. The modern farm animal is in fact a more efficient meat- 

 producing machine than it was fifty years ago, capable of 

 dealing with more food and of growing more rapidly to 

 maturity, thus shortening the time during which food has to be 

 consumed for purposes of pure maintenance only. It is in this 

 direction that new experiments and additional data are generally 

 needed, for we know nothing of the relative capacities of 

 modern breeds of farm animals as meat producers or of their 

 digestive powers for various foods. Due economy in feeding is 

 only possible if the practical man can check his opinions by 

 reference from time to time to exact determinations of the re- 

 quirements of different animals at various stages of their growth. 



Others of the pig experiments showed how much less of 

 the food is utilised for increase as the fattening advances, 

 partly because as the animal increases in size it consumes more 

 food for purposes of warmth and internal work than before, 

 partly also because the increase made during the latter period is 

 more fatty and therefore drier than in the earlier stages. 



The following table shows the rates of increase of pigs fed 



TABLE XC. Fattening Pigs. Weekly Consumption of Food, and rate 



of Increase. 



