72 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FEEDING. 



The maintenance of life in any animal means food consumption. 

 The performance of work means proportionately so miuich more food 

 required by the animal body, while the production of milk in large 

 or considerable quantities means much more food consumed even 

 relatively since not only must the elements entering into the composi- 

 tion of the milk be secured from some external source, food, but 

 there is a further and very considerable demand for food to supply 

 the energy required to elaborate milk from the material consumed. 

 In brief, the good dairy cow is necessarily a large consumer of 

 food. Food consumption is her business. 



The food consumed should, and usually does, contain the 

 elements found necessary to repair the body waste and elaborate that 

 much-desired product, milk. The animal body consists of (1) water, 

 from 40 to 65 per cent; (2) ash or mineral matter, from 2 to 4 per 

 cent; (3) fat, from 5 to 30 per cent; and (4) nitrogenous material 

 or protein, from 11 to 20 per cent. All these materials sihould be 

 supplied living animals daily in order to keep them in good health. 



WHAT WE FEED. 



As might be expected, the foods commonly fed cattle and 

 other farm animals contain in varying proportions those very ele- 

 ments found to be necessary to the life and profitable exploitation of 

 the dairy cow. Plants or their parts, however, contain in considerable 

 quantities a substance called ' carbohydrates ' in addition to the 

 protein, water, fat and mineral matters or ash. 



Water. All feed stuffs contain water. The proportion varies 

 from 8 to 10 per cent in grain, hay, etc., to 90 or even 95 per cent in 

 certain varieties of roots or lush-growing peas and clover. The 

 water in feeds is of no greater food value than common drinking- 

 water; but its presence may materially affect the palatability of a 

 food. 



Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates may be said to be of two kinds: 

 Nitrogen-free extract, .as starch, sugar, gums, etc., and cellulose or 

 fibre, the principal part of vegetable cell walls. These substances 

 are converted by the animal into fat and so stored in the body or 

 are used at once to produce heat or energy. Carbohydrates, con- 

 stituting as they do the largest part of most feeding stuffs, are made 



