FEEDING METHODS. 377 



amused the farmers, but now a table that will 

 work well in practice can readily be made out 

 on the basis of the early German experiments. 

 The first thing the feeder wants to get settled 

 is what food supplies has he to draw from. 

 Then he can build up on that basis. The 

 breeder needs nothing so much as good per- 

 manent pastures. As has already been said, 

 such pastures yield such a variety of grasses as 

 to furnish a complete and most excellent ration. 

 The pasture is the backbone of cattle-breeding. 

 No effort is too great to get the pasture ready 

 for the cattle in the earliest days of spring, or 

 to prolong in the autumn the time during 

 which it yields good grass. The ration afforded 

 by pasturage is not one calculated to make 

 animals very fat. It is well-balanced, tending 

 to make growth and lean meat, rather than fat. 

 In such cases, as fattening is the prime object, 

 an addition must be made of some food rich in 

 fat-making qualities. In such a case the scien- 

 tist is ready with a suggestion. He will point 

 out that some parts of some plants are diges- 

 tible and others indigestible, that the nutrition 

 derived from one plant will be greater than 

 that derived from another on this account 

 simply, aside from the question of composition. 

 Thus rye straw is a poor food compared with 

 wheat straw though chemically very nearly 

 the same because the latter is more digesti- 



