RATIO OF WATER TO DRY FOOD. 299 



drink from 1 to 6 quarts of water per day. With roots, in 

 winter, much more w r ater than is necessary is taken, even 

 though none be drunk, and the addition of a little dry food, 

 meal or cake, is decidedly economical. 



With horses the proportion of water consumed varies greatly 

 with the amount of work done by the animal and with other 

 circumstances. 



With the Paris cab horses Grandeau found the average 

 proportion of water to dry matter in the food to be 2 1 : 1 

 when at rest and 3'6 : 1 when working. 



With fattening oxen, American experiments" showed that 

 from 1*6 to 3'4ft>. of water per Rj. of dry matter were con- 

 sumed and that the largest amount of water was drunk when 

 the food was richest in protein. 



With milch cows the average amount of water to each pound 

 of dry food is 41b., according to American experiments; but 

 here again a ration with a narrow albuminoid ratio requires 

 more water than one with a wide one. Thus at the Wisconsin 

 Station in 1886 it was found that with food having an albu- 

 minoid ratio of 1 : 5 '5 there were 4-33R). of water drunk for 

 each pound of dry matter, while with a ratio of 1 : 8'6 only 

 2-41R). were taken. A cow will usually drink from 8 to 10 

 gallons per day, but if roots be supplied the quantity will of 

 course be considerably diminished. 



With pigs the usual proportion of water consumed does not 

 appear to have often been recorded. In 1887, at Copenhagen, 

 trials showed no advantage or disadvantage between excessive 

 quantities of water and an ad libitum supply. On the other 

 hand, experiments conducted at the Yorkshire College Farm 

 at Garforth in the early part of 1900 showed a decided advan- 

 tage in curtailing the water supplied to fattening pigs. Two 

 pens of six pigs each were fed with a mixture of equal weights 

 of barley meal and "sharps." In one case the mixture was 

 soaked for some days in four times its w r eight of water, while 

 in the other only twice its weight of water was used. The 

 former was fed to the pigs in a sloppy condition, the latter 

 was of the consistency of oat-meal porridge. Both lots were 

 allowed as much of the food as they would eat, and the animals 



* Georgeson, Bull. 34 and 39, Kansas Expt. Station. 



