326 The Feeding of Animals 



experimenters, notably Sanborn and Henry, in this 

 country, have compared the growth of swine on rations 

 presenting extreme differences, as, for instance, mid- 

 dlings and blood against corn meal alone 4 or shorts 

 and bran against potatoes, tallow and corn meal. As 

 would be expected, the development of the two lots 

 of pigs was in these cases greatly unlike. Those fed 

 on the nitrogenous rations contained more blood than 

 the other ; their organs, such as the kidneys and liver, 

 were much larger in proportion to the weight of the 

 body, the bones were stronger and the proportion of 

 muscle in the carcass was much greater. These differ- 

 ences were very marked. It should not be forgotten, 

 however, that these were extreme and somewhat un- 

 usual rations. It is doubtful whether there are gen- 

 erally sufficient differences in the food combinations of 

 ordinary practice to occasion such marked differences 

 of body structure. 



At the Cornell University Experiment Station lambs 

 fed on oil meal and bran made a much more satisfac- 

 tory gain than a lot the grain ration of which was 

 corn meal alone, but the photographs of the carcasses 

 do not show a larger proportionate growth of muscular 

 tissue from the nitrogenous foods. 



An elaborate study of the influence of the ration 

 upon the composition of the carcass was made at the 

 Maine Experiment Station, where two lots of steers 

 were fed from calfhood on rations widely unlike in 

 their nutritive ratio. The grain food of one lot was 

 oil meal, wheat bran and corn meal, and of the other 

 lot corn meal, mixed with a minimum proportion of 



