78 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



ously considered. But the clearest foresight, even in the 

 newly-settled West, is now studying this question of com- 

 pensation for fertility removed by constant cropping; and 

 there, the principal location of our present meat produc- 

 tion, and soon to be also of our dairy productions, this 

 problem must be considered on the same basis as it is in 

 the meat-producing regions of Europe. 



We have just seen that the nitrogen and mineral matter 

 of the food are all recovered in the visible excrement, ex- 

 cept what is stored up in the body of the animal as an in- 

 crease of its weight. In general terms the disposition of 

 the food consumed by an animal is as follows : The indi- 

 gestible part passes nearly unchanged through the body a 

 part is assimilated into the body to replace the natural 

 waste of the system, but is itself afterward disorganized 

 and ejected ; the rest is converted into the body of the 

 animal as an increase of its substance that is, the undi- 

 gested food and the aliment which has undergone conver- 

 sion into flesh and other tissues, and subsequent disorgan- 

 ization, constitute the excrements or manure. The richer 

 in nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash the food is, the 

 more valuable must be the manure. And it thus follows, 

 that the actual money value of a food is not to be found 

 merely in the amount of flesh which it makes, but also in 

 the value of the manure produced from it. 



As the richest food produces the richest manure, and as 

 all the fertilizing elements of the food which are not re- 

 quired for replacing waste or producing growth in the 

 animal are found in the manure, so that many English 

 feeders seem quite indifferent as to the proper adjustment 

 of tiie ration to the actual needs of the animal satisfied 

 that whatever is not returned in growth and laying on of 

 fat is found in the manure heap they often feed to steers 

 8 to 12 pounds of oil cakes when the animal cannot utilize 

 more than 6 pounds of this highly nitrogenous food. Al- 



