372 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



unwise and careless one. Had it been otherwise 

 the son and grandson would have been educated 

 by it up to a progressive spirit, for he who is 

 first is always inspirited to maintain his pre- 

 eminence. Traditions of this sort are usually 

 harbored by those whose fences are rotten, 

 whose weeds are uncut, whose cattle are half- 

 starved in the winter and half-cared for all the 

 year round. We look on the fancy farm of the 

 man who is a follower of pure theory, and then 

 on the run-down farm of "the son of his fath- 

 ers," and wonder which reaps the least profit. 

 What we want to learn is, what the theoretical 

 scientist has to teach us, and then apply it in a 

 practical, common-sense way. Thus, and thus 

 only, can cattle be fed profitably in this day, 

 when the farmer needs to save every cent he 

 possibly can ; save, too, not by hoarding, but by 

 using the most progressive methods and making 

 two profits where formerly only one was made. 

 Let us glance, then, very briefly at the salient 

 facts which science has to teach us in regard to 

 feeding methods before looking at the way the 

 practical feeder deals with the problems which 

 confront him daily 



All animal bodies, from the simplest to the 

 most complex, consist chiefly of the four ele- 

 ments of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitro- 

 gen. These elements play an equal part in the 

 composition of plants. That part of the bodies 



