FEEDING OF SILAGE. 



The value of food is determined by two factors. They 

 are composition and digestibility. By composition is meant 

 amounts of what might be described as flesh-forming, heat 

 and force producing, and bone-forming ingredients present 

 in the food. They are termed by the chemist albuminoids, 

 fats, carbohydrates and fibre and ash respectively. All foods 

 also contain a greater or less amount of water in their com- 

 position. Some foods are known to contain more flesh- 

 forming material than others, as the analysis of oats and 

 wheat straw when compared will show : 



It is seen that oats contain over three times the quantity 

 of the flesh-forming constituent (albuminoids) that wheat 

 straw does. Also in heat and force producing ingredients 

 they contain about half as much again as wheat straw. 



But in various foods those various ingredients are pre- 

 sent in somewhat different forms, so that in passing through 

 the digestive tract they are not all equally digested. Again, 

 a ruminant, such as a cow, may digest and assimilate more 

 of an ingredient than would, for instance, a horse. 



Table showing amounts digested per 100 Ibs. of each constituent 

 in oats supplied. 



