CHAPTER XII. 



WINTER MANAGEMENT CONTINUED 



FEEDING— SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES APPLIED— FATTENING. 



FEEDING. 



"VVe are now about to enter a department of winter econo- 

 my of the highest importance, and will require at the outset 

 a brief development of a few fundamental principles, a know- 

 ledge of which is indispensably necessary to correct prac- 

 tice. 



It is a law of nature that nothing is lost or annihilated. 

 In the combustion of wood or straw, the elements which 

 compose them only change their form by assuming a gase- 

 ous character, and thereby become active agents in repro- 

 ducing other bodies of like nature. The majestic tree, 

 springing into existence from the tiny acorn or nut, in at- 

 taining its huge bulk, does not produce any new elements ; 

 its growth is derived from the power it possesses to assimi- 

 late that which floats in the atmosphere or exists in the soil. 

 These are the sources of nourishment to plants ; on the 

 other hand, animals derive their sustenance from the food 

 taken into the body, and through the process of digestion 

 converting the nutrient part of the food into flesh and blood. 

 The animal mass, with its various organs, is formed of the 

 constituents of the herbage upon which it feeds. The ex- 

 ercise of animals to obtain subsistence, and for other pur- 

 poses, requires a certain force, to produce which is attended 

 with loss or waste of the system — " the living parts become 

 dead parts, and are at length cast from the system." To 

 counteract this tendency to waste food is required, and when 

 the suppl}'- of food and the waste are equal, the weight of 

 the animal is unaltered. 



Food has a twofold purpose to eflfect : one is to nourish the 

 system, the other affords the means by which animal heat is 



