PREPARATION OF FOOD. 201 



hay per day if he has no other food ; if he works, 3 per cent. ; 

 an ox, 2 per cent. ; if he works, 2-J per cent. : a milch cow, 

 3 per cent. : a fatting ox, 5 per cent, at first ; 4J per cent, 

 when half fat ; and only 4 per cent, when fat ; or 4-i on the 

 an average. Sheep grown up take 3^- per cent, of their 

 weight in hay per day, to keep in store condition. 



Growing animals require more food, and should never be 

 stinted.* 



The table below shows the relative value of different ar- 

 ticles of food, as ascertained by practice ; good meadow hay 

 being taken at 100. 



The above table represents the average results from a num- 

 ber of experiments made in France and Holland.] 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 



Some of the articles used as food frequently undergo prepa- 

 ration before they are given : they are dried, boiled, bruised, 

 ^ut, and so forth. 



One object is to economize the consumption ; another to 

 render the food more easily eaten ; a third to correct some 

 unwholesome quality ; a fourth to give it a new property ; a 

 fifth to ensure complete mastication ; a sixth to ensure delib- 

 erate ingestion ; and a seventh to preserve the food. These 

 will be best illustrated by considering the processes to which 

 the food is submitted. 



Drying need hardly be mentioned. Its principal object is 

 to preserve the food. Besides depriving it of a large quan- 

 tity of water, it seems, in some cases, to alter the article in 

 other respects. New oats are purgative ; those which are 

 kiln-dried are diuretic. The drying in this case gives a new 

 property, which is not beneficial, but can not, perhaps, be 

 avoided. If the change were effected entirely by taking 

 away water, the food should be restored to its original state 

 by moistening it. This does not happen. Drying renders 

 grain and fodder constipating; new grain and new hay are 

 always laxative. Grass, when converted into hay, suffers 

 fermentation, and lo^es more than half its weight. According 



* Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc. 



