THE SCIENTIFIC FEEDING 

 OF ANIMALS 



CHAPTER I 



THE COMPOSITION OF FEEDING-STUFFS 



THE natural products of the animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms which serve for the nourish- 

 ment of domestic animals have a very varied 

 composition. There is hardly one of them that 

 contains less than thirty to forty different com- 

 ponents, and to this number additions are con- 

 tinually being made. In order to get an insight 

 into this crowded department it is necessary to 

 group together those materials which resemble one 

 another in their properties, or in their nutritive 

 value. The chemical examination of a food-stuff 

 is for this reason generally confined to a determina- 

 tion of the quantity of (i) water, (2) protein, or 

 albuminoids, (3) non-protein substances, such as 

 amides and amino acids, (4) fat, or oil, (5) crude 

 fibre, (6) nitrogen-free extract substances, or carbo- 

 hydrates, (7) ash and sand, which it contains. 



