40 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



COMPOSITION OF FARM ANIMALS — Con. 



Water Ash Pro- Fat 



tein 



p ct p ct p ct p ct 



Steer 17 months old. .57.1 5.20 17.5 20.2 



Steer 24 months old.. 53.1 5.10 16.6 25.2 



Steer 24 months old.. 53. 4 5.20 16.8 24.6 



Fat lamb 48.6 3.63 10.9 36.9 



Store sheep 57.3 4.36 14.5 23.8 



Half fat old sheep ...49.7 4.13 14.9 31.3 



Fat sheep 39.7 3.45 11.5 45.4 



Very fat sheep 33.0 2.77 9.1 55.1 



Store pig 55.3 2.57 14.0 28.1 



Fat pig 38.6 1.40 10.5 49.5 



Average 50.7 4.1 14.5 30.9 



Water in animals— A striking feature 

 of this table is the large amount of water 

 shown to exist in the animal body. Ex- 

 cept in the case of fat animals, over 50 

 per cent of the bodies of cattle, sheep 

 and swine consists of water. The body 

 of the calf, even though fat, is shown to 



percentage of fat. On the average we see 

 that over half the dry matter of the ani- 

 mal body consists of fat. Even in the 

 case of lean animals, as the store pig 

 and store sheep, the fat constitutes the 

 largest part of the dry matter, while in 

 the case of the very fat sheep and the 

 fat pig, practically half the whole body 

 is composed of fat. 



Lawes and Gilbert have shown that in 

 fattening cattle, sheep and swine from 

 65 per cent of the increase in weight in 

 the case of cattle to as high as 75 per 

 cent in the case of sheep may be com- 

 posed of fat. The nitrogenous sub- 

 stance may constitute 7 to 8 per cent of 

 the gain in weight and the ash from less 

 than 1 to more than 2 per cent, the 

 rest of the increase being water. With 



Fig. 30 — FIRST CUTTING OP ALFALFA, MAY 24, ON AN OHIO FARM 



consist of a still larger percentage of 

 water. As animals increase in fatness 

 the percentage of water decreases. This 

 does not mean that fat is substituted for 

 the water already existing in the body 

 but that the increased growth in fatten- 

 ing contains a less proportionate amount 

 of water than the original body. In the 

 case of mature cattle, sheep and swine 

 the increase in growth during fattening 

 contains only about 25 per cent of water 

 and in some cases even less. 



This explains why animals ready for 

 market contain less water than lean ani- 

 mals and why the meat of young pork or 

 lean hogs fries away so much more than 

 pork from well fattened swine. 



Fat in animals— The next important 

 column in the table is that showing the 



young fattening animals these propor- 

 tions will be slightly changed, there be- 

 ing a slight increase in the ash, nitrog- 

 enous substance, and water. 



Protein in animals — I n the column 

 marked protein it will be noted that on 

 the average the bodies of the animals 

 examined were made up of 14.5 per cent 

 of this material. Protein is a word 

 used for a group of substances in 

 both plants (see page 48) and ani- 

 mals which contain the element, nitro- 

 gen. Lean meat is a characteristic ex- 

 ample of protein and the albumen or 

 white of an egg is another important 

 nitrogenous compound belonging to this 

 group. The calf is seen to contain as 

 much protein as fat. All the other ani- 

 mals contain much more fat than pro- 



