MODERN SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 309 



STOCK FOODS AND CONDITION POWDERS. 



There has been a good deal of discussion of late as to the 

 benefits to be derived from the use of stock foods and condition 

 powders. The writer was recently asked his opinion of their 

 merits ^y a young sheep breeder, whose questions were answered 

 as follows : 



"We should not look upon stock foods as a food in the strict 

 sense of the word, although their bulk may be made up of, say, 

 linseed meal, locust-bean meal, cornmeal or what-not. We must 

 consider them more in the light of a regulator and toner of the 

 system; more as a preventive than a cure of disease, and as a 

 handy proprietary article whose chief virtue lies in keeping the 

 animal's digestive apparatus in normal working order. No rational 

 thinking man expects stock foods to wholly take the place of grain. 

 As an adjunct to the grain ration, however, they are of almost in- 

 estimable value. Show sheep which have become dull and inac- 

 tive, whose appetites are poor and fleeces lifeless, resultant of im- 

 paired digestive organs, seem to gain a new lease of life after being 

 fed a few feeds of such condiments. In herds of young cattle we 

 usually find more or less of their number unthrifty, although they 

 may not be suffering from any specific disease. Such animals are 

 almost invariably benefited by stock foods and sometimes inside of 

 ten days after using a marked improvement in their condition is 

 apparent. Whether such foods destroy the internal parasites with 

 which they may be infested or not it is not within my province to 

 say, but I do know that in a very large percentage of cases the 

 animals to which they are fed are benefited. For stale show ani- 

 mals, sickened by long "'circuit" touring, nothing equals a good 

 stock food as a "f reshner." Where stock foods are fed to exhibition 

 animals there is little danger of their being overfed, for they 

 seem to act as a safety valve in minimizing the effect of too luxu- 

 rious living. Where a show animal's stomach is kept active there 

 is very little danger of its feet becoming inactive. Spices when 

 taken in correct proportion tone the stomach of man or beast. 

 Stock foods contain spices and herbs which help very materially 

 in the proper assimilation of an animal's food. Where stock is 

 housed and highly fed, such foods, in a measure, take the place of 

 exercise. I do not mean by this that animals furnished stock foods 

 need no exercise. If experiments were made with two lots of 

 housed cattle or sheep the one to be fed as highly as possible on 

 rations in whose composition a good stock food had figured and 

 the other on similar rations in whose composition stock food had 

 not figured it would be safe to predict that the animals compos- 

 ing the second lot would be the first to break down, for the reason, 

 their stomachs would more readily lose their normal tone. While 

 it would be unreasonable to feed stock food to a breeding flock of 



