100 



Feeds and Feeding. 



cium phosphate, burned bone, or ground rock phosphate. And 

 what is true of pigs is doubtless true with other farm animals. 

 This is most helpful information to stockmen, especially in the 

 corn-growing districts of America where feeding stuffs available 

 for swine and other farm animals are often low in lime and phos- 

 phorus. Ground rock phosphate, or floats, will apparently supply 

 the needed phosphorus and also lime at nominal cost. 



123. Rich and poor milk for young animals. — Beach of the Con- 

 necticut (Storrs) Station^ fed calves, pigs, and lambs on three 

 grades of milk — skimmed milk, ordinary milk containing from 3 

 to 3.5 per ct. fat, and rich milk containing from 5.1 to 5.7 per ct. 

 of fat. The lambs also received a small quantity of hay. The 

 table shows the milk solids, including fat, required to produce 1 lb. 

 of gain : 



Milk solids consumed per Ih. of gain hy calves, pigs, and lambs. 



Length of feeding period 



Mill{ poor 

 in fat 



Milk rich 

 in fat 



Calves fed 45 days 



Pigs fed 40 days (1st trial). 

 Pigs fed 30 days (2d trial) . 

 Lambs fed 60 days . . 



1.48 



Lbs. 

 1.03 

 1.36 

 1.40 

 1.08* 



Lbs. 

 1.18 

 1.78 

 1.56 

 1.37* 



*0.42 lb. digestible matter in hay, additional. 



It is seen that in every case milk rich in fat was less valuable 

 per lb. of dry matter, fat included, than was milk poor in fat, or 

 even skim milk. Beach reports that the pigs fed rich milk suf- 

 fered loss of appetite and were attacked by diarrhea, finally not 

 eating enough to sustain life. Those fed skim milk or milk low in 

 fat, but under otherwise identical conditions, throve. The lambs 

 on rich milk also showed lack of appetite. 



In Europe studies on infant feeding lead to the same conclu- 

 sion. They show that cow's milk rich in fat tends to produce in- 

 testinal disturbances and is not so well adapted to the needs of the 

 human infant as poorer milk. The following explanation of this 

 harmful effect of excess of fat in the food of infants has been of- 

 fered : The general capacity of an organism for the absorption of 

 fat is strictly confined within narrow limits, and consequently any 

 excess is not absorbed but remains in the intestine. There it is 

 converted into soaps, composed of part of the fats and an alkali, 

 and as such eliminated from the body in the excreta. This ex- 



Bul. 31. 



