RIGHT FEEDING 25 



make too much fat and little meat; too high in mineral or ash will make 

 the animal rangy, with a gangling or heavy bone structure, in each case 

 wasteful. 



So you see it takes a long head and ''balanced" judgment to be a 

 profitable feeder. But as a scientific problem it is pretty simple to work 

 out, isn't it? And think of the difference in profit when you feed for what 

 you want to get, get all you ought to have, and waste nothing over! 



HAVE YOU A LONG It takes a long pocket-book one long and 

 POCKET-BOOK? wide and deep to let the feeding problem take 



care of itself, without regard to cost and profits. 



Stick to the balanced ration. Temper it with balanced judgment, and 

 remember that practical feeding (just as with practical breeding) can 

 never be an exact science; and no real scientist claims that. Good judg- 

 ment your own must moderate any working rule anywhere suggested. 



TURN TO THE All this talk has been about protein, carbohydrates, 



TABLE fat and ash; because it's the protein, carbohydrates, fat 



and ash that you actually feed whether in form 



of corn, wheat, oats, roots or hay. But to figure out a ration you'll have 

 to work from a table of values of common feeds such as are given on pages 

 29 and 30. So better put a mark there and turn back to it whenever you 

 have need for reference. 



SELECTING Choose the feed for what you want to get out of it. 

 THE RATION The growing or hard working animal, or one under pres- 

 sure of breeding, or of milk production, needs what 

 is called a "narrow" ration; meaning a large proportion of digestible 

 protein. Idle full-grown animals need less of this protein and a larger 

 proportion of carbohydrates, or what is called a "wide" ration. Any animal 

 needs enough of this protein element in its feed to replace the daily loss 

 of tissue, and make new growth of hair, hoofs, etc. 



A NEGLECTED The mineral or ash element is one often neglected 



ELEMENT after an animal is grown. Mineral or ash is needed not 



only in the bone, but as a necessary element of 



various parts of the body. If at any time tjie food does not supply what 

 is needed of this element, lime, phosphate, etc., the tissues actually take 

 it from the bone substance itself. The frame of the animal becomes brittle 

 and "soft" from lack of mineral. Fractures and such accidents are likely 

 to occur; the owner often wondering what could have caused them. Animals 

 with young especially need this mineral substance for the bony structure 

 of the offspring's body. If it isn't supplied in the feed, nature will get it 

 from the parent animal's body. The bones of the mother will actually be 

 robbed for what is needed by the young animal's growing body. This is 

 nature's way. She gets even. In the same way if the daily ration does 

 not provide the other nutritive elements needed, the poor animal simply 

 draws from its own fat tissues, and thus feeds on its own body for main- 

 tenance, or for the growth of the offspring. 



WHAT IS A In books on feeding, in farm papers, etc., you 



"NUTRITIVE RATIO"? will often come to this term, the "nutritive 



ratio;" and we should make sure that we all 



know just what it means without merely getting along with a guess or 

 two at it. We spoke above of the proportion of protein to carbohydrates, 



