256 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



We here present tables grouping the animals according 

 to age, within certain limits and if we take their average 

 age, weight, and gain per day, the law of growth will be 

 most evident. Some of these tables show less difference in 

 growth according to age than others. We have arranged 

 them arbitrarily according to age, ignoring the question of 

 breed. The table for the show of 1881, in the group of 

 631 days old, shows but a mere fraction of greater gain 

 than in the group of 903 days old. This was occasioned by 

 associating three Devon steers with three Short-horn or 

 grade Short-horns. The Devons gain, respectively, 1.36, 

 1.15, 1.38 per day, whilst the grade Short-horns gain 2.17, 

 2.05, 2.01 the average gain of the six being 1.69 per day. 

 And in the group of 903 days are two remarkable grade steers 

 that gain respectively 2.21 and 2.11, which brings up the 

 average gain of the group of eight to 1.58 per day. Still it is 

 easy to see the effect of age upon the gain per day. It will 

 be seen that the appropriate comparison is of the same 

 breed with itself at different ages, and better still, the same 

 animals at different ages. 



It will be seen in all the tables that the average gain per 

 day constantly decreases as the animals grow older and 

 heavier. In the fifth group of steers oi the show in 1879 

 the average gain is raised considerably by the remarkable 

 steer No. 30, which reached 2,820 Ibs. at four and a half 

 years old. He gains .53 Ib. more per day than either of 

 the others. It would be very interesting if we had the 

 periodical gains of this steer for each six months of its life. 

 This would give a most important lesson of the relative 

 growth, according to age, of the same animal. 



Let us see what an important lesson these periodical 

 weighings would teach. We may reasonably suppose that 

 the second group at this show were as thrifty and heavy at 

 569 days old as the first group; that is, that they weighed 

 1,249 Ibs., and had gained 2.19 Ibs. per day; but during 



