SCIENTIFIC FEEDING 



361 



qualities are mechanical aids in digestion. Carbohydrates 

 are readily transformed into fat in the animal's body. 



266. The foil wing table shows the per cents, or number 

 of pounds per hundred, of digestible nutrients of dry mat- 

 ter, protein, carbohydrate, and fat, in a few common feeds, 

 together with their nutritive ratios. 1 



NOTE. If you take any of the numbers in the protein column and divide it 

 into the corresponding number of the carbohydrate and fat column, the second 

 number of the ratio will be found. For example, 42.3 divided by 11.0 equals 

 3.8. The nutritive ratio then is a method of expressing the protein by 1 and 

 the carbohydrate and fat correspondingly. 



It will at once be noticed from the table that there is a 

 wide difference in the composition of foodstuffs. This 

 difference must be taken into account in feeding. 



267. Scientific Feeding. Scientific feeding takes into con- 

 sideration the cost, palatability, digestibility, bulk, variety, 

 and composition of different feeds and the effects on the 

 health of the animal. In Henry's feed tables, feeding 



1 By this phrase, nutritive ratio, is meant the ratio of the weight of digest- 

 ible protein in any food to the weight of digestible carbohydrates and fat 

 combined. 



