3f)4 FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



desire to call attention to sugar and its importance. This hydrocarbon is rap- 

 idly burned during the process of respiration. The amount f sugar that 

 enters the digestive canal during twenty-four hours is very great, being about 

 20 Ibs. for a full-grown ox, yet the blood itself contains only a small percent- 

 age of it. Nowhere does it appear to be deposited and its dissociation is 

 extremely rapid as compared with the assimilation of other elements. In fact, 

 carbohydrates in general are rapidly absorbed. The fatty substances of a fod- 

 der help to sustain respiration and aid the production of animal heat; they 

 form a sort of emulsion, combining with alkalies of the pancreatic fluid and 

 bile. The fatty oils when in excess in a fodder frequently produce a bad effect 

 upon the animal's health. This fat formation is always limited. When starch 

 is in excess in a ration, it is always found in the excrement. Fat may be 

 formed from protein substances. Whatever be the source, the excess should 

 undergo a complete oxidation, and the amount that has been deposited either 

 as fat or in milk, depends upon several conditions too complicated to be con- 

 sidered in this writing. An interesting fact that is difficult to explain is that 

 fat deposited from albuminoids oxidizes more rapidly than the fat that had been 

 previously deposited from other sources. We cannot pass unnoticed the action 

 of glycogen, which may also be considered a carbohydrate. This element is 

 found in the liver in quantities depending upon what the animal eats; its pro- 

 perties are very like sugar, as regards its effect upon polarized light, but it has 

 no action on a copper solution. This sugar appears to be constantly renewing 

 itself, but the process is not known. Within what limits this glycogen is 

 a reserve for the sugar needed by the body would be difficult to say. The car- 

 bohydrates appear to play their most active parts during the last period of fat- 

 tening. The direct action of the elements of this group is understood to a 

 reasonable extent, but there are many facts relating to it that continue to re- 

 main a mystery. It is unnecessary to enter into the various theories that 

 attempt to show that glycogen has a protein origin, being held in reserve 

 until needed. 



In all questions of nutrition, the nervous system takes a most active part, 

 but what precise action foods have upon the nervous system continues to be 

 open to conjecture. We do know, however, that certain foods are more ex- 

 citing than others, this action varying in each special case; just as very nervous 

 individuals are seldom fat, so are nervous animals most difficult to fatten. 

 A problem of the future will be to discover some food that can, in a 

 measure, overcome excessive nervousness. The question remains to be de- 

 cided whether by proper care a new race could not be created in which the 

 characteristics of the ancestor could be overcome; but as matters now exist, the 

 complication, whatever it be, has a tendency to increase, and until, diminished, 

 the science of cattle feeding must suffer from the want of more accurate 

 methods. The rational system is kindness and due consideration for the 

 animal under special observation. It is interesting within a reasonable extent, 

 to follow the various elements not yet assimilated which have been taken up 

 by the blood; their separation is effected by special organs known as glands, 

 all of these having special functions to fulfill. It is well not to confound the 



