WASTE-PRODUCT RATIONS. 305 



RATION FOR OXEN AT HARD WORK. 

 Ibs. No. 7. Ibs. No. 9. 



20 best meadow hay. 

 10 corn-meal. 



4 linseed-cake. 

 17 clover-hay. 



3 wheat-bran. 

 10 corn-meal. 



25 oat-straw. 

 5 wheat-bran. 



Na 8 ' No. 10. 



20 corn-fodder. 

 5 clover-hay. 



2 wheat-bran. 



3 cotton-seed cake. 



These rations are not given to be followed strictly, but 

 only as suggestions of the proper combination of food for 

 fattening cattle and for oxen at work. The reader will see 

 what almost endless combinations may be made from the 

 food-tables given at pages 157-8. Oxen at rest do not 

 require so nitrogenous a diet as when at work, or as grow- 

 ing or fattening cattle. The proper nutritive ratio for oxen 

 at rest in stall is 1:12; the same heavily worked, 1:6 ; cows 

 in milk, 1:5.5 ; fattening oxen, 1st period, 1:6.5 ; 3d period, 

 1:5.5; 3d period, 1:6; young growing cattle, 1:4.7; those 

 older, 1:5 ; 18 months old, 1:6 ; 24 months, 1:7. 



We have dwelt longer upon this matter of rations be- 

 cause it is only recently that farmers have recognized the 

 necessity of a change of ration for all the different condi.- 

 tions ; and they have been wont to consider a single food 

 sufficient for the wants of cattle. These tables, showing 

 how various are the qualities of the foods given to our ani- 

 mals, and how deficient many of them are as a complete 

 ration, will give a better idea of the necessity for combin- 

 ing the different foods together, that our cattle may have 

 the proper elements to meet all their wants. In our pas- 

 tures all of these wants are provided for in the ten to fifty 

 species of grasses found growing there. Some old pas- 

 tures contain probably nearer one hundred species than 

 fifty, and these furnish a bovine ration in absolute perfec- 

 tion. Young grass contains a larger proportion of albu- 

 minoids than when nearer maturity; and it is found that 



