FEEDING RATIOKS. 16'? 



helped considerably in increasing the income as well as 

 in providing excellent fodder for the cows in the refuse. 



There are many cases in which farms which have been 

 badly managed near towns and cities may be purchased 

 cheaply, stocked with cows, and worked in this way with 

 great advantage; for the needed foods can be easily pro- 

 cured. Manure may be purchased cheaply and the 

 products sold at the best market prices. The purchase 

 of manure, however, is not best when food can be bought 

 and made into butter at a profit, and the manure left. 



The following remarks by Sir J. B. Lawes, the first 

 authority in the world upon this subject, may be read 

 most profitably: 



^' The only constituents of food which are of impor- 

 tance as ingredients of manure are the nitrogenous sub- 

 stances and the ash constituents. If the live weight of 

 an animal remains unchanged, and there is no production 

 of milk, the quantity of nitrogen and ash constituents 

 voided in the manure will be the same as that contained 

 in the food consumed ; the albuminoids and ash con- 

 stituents of the food used for the renovation of tissue 

 being in this case equivalent to the quantity yielded by 

 the degradation of tissue. In cases where the body 

 weight is increasing, or milk being formed, the amount 

 of nitrogen and ash constituents in the manure will 

 be less than that in the food, in direct proportion to the 

 quantity of these converted into animal produce. 



"A part of the albuminoids and ash constituents are 

 left undigested during the passage of the food through 

 the alimentary canal ; these are voided in the solid excre- 

 ment. The digested nitrogenous matter and ash con- 

 stituents pass into the blood; a part of them may be 

 converted into animal increase if the animal is gaining 

 in weight or producing milk, and the remainder is 

 finally separated from the blood by the kidneys, and 

 is voided in the form of urine. The albuminoids are 



