PRINCIPLES OF FEEDING 2OO, 



enough for all practical purposes. The "dry matter" 

 is about four pounds short of the requirement, but that 

 is not important. The figuring out of a ration for any 

 animal is somewhat a matter of guessing. 



Suppose we wish to figure out a ration for a horse 

 at light work and weighing one thousand pounds. We 

 have on hand mixed hay, oats, and bran. How much of 

 each may we feed, and make a balanced ration? Let us 

 look first on page 259 of the Appendix, and we see that a 

 horse weighing about 1,000 pounds, at light work, re- 

 quires daily 20 pounds of digestible dry matter, 1.5 

 pounds of protein, and 10.4 pounds of carbohydrates (.4 

 Ibs. X 2^ + 9-5 Ibs.), making a ratio of 1:7. That is, 

 seven times as many pounds of carbohydrates and fats as 

 protein should be fed. This we might call a medium 

 ratio. 1 



Now let us make a guess of a ration for our work horse. 

 Let us take fifteen pounds of mixed hay (equal parts of 

 timothy and red clover) and five pounds of oats, and see 

 how close our result comes to the standard. From the 

 Table on pages 257, 258, we find our ration figures out as 

 follows: 



Digestible Digestible Digestible 

 dry matter. protein, carbohydrates. 



15 Ibs. Mixed hay 12.9 .72 6.5 



5 Ibs. Oats.. 4.5 .44 2.9 



Result 17.4 1.16 9.4 



Standard 20.0 1.50 10.4 



Lacks 2.6 Lacks .34 Lacks 1.0 



1 The terms "medium" ratio, "wide" ratio and "narrow" ratio are used to 

 indicate the relative amount of carbohydrates compared with the protein elements. 

 A "wide" ratio means more of the carbohydrates as compared with the proteins, 

 G. & M. Ag. 14. 



