OHAPTEE XV. 



Bulk in Cattle Feed; and Digestion. 

 Influences of Sulk on the Body and the Limgs. 



Between the years 1875 and 1879, a few farmers in New 

 York restricted their dry cows exclusively to corn-meal 

 rations during the winter, without unfavorable results be- 

 coming apparent in so short a period. But if no unfavor- 

 able results appeared from temporary and quite limited 

 trials of concentrated food exclusively, such a reduction in 

 the ordinary and natural bulk of food consumed, must, if 

 long continued, lead to both internal and external changes 

 that could not be beneficial either to animal or owner. 



Bulk of food is necessary to maintain the natural size 

 and proportion in the salivary glands, in the stomach, and 

 in the bowels, and in all parts of the alimentary canal. 



It is the difference in bulk of food — long-continued — 

 that causes the difference in the size of the bowels in the 

 race-horse, compared with heavy farm-horses ; the English 

 cart-horse presenting, in his full size under the loins, a 

 strong contrast to the tucked-up form and lighter weight 

 of the race-horse, or to the arched back and light, tucked- 

 up loins of the Greyhound dog. And, whatever may be 

 desirable as to light weight in the bowels of fast horses, 

 and fleeter dogs, it is not requisite that work horses, and 

 breeding or milk cows, or other cattle, should be either 

 light in the bowels or small in the stomach, as much of the 

 feed which can generally be supplied to either horses or 

 to cattle, at any season, is coarse and bulky. Moreover, 

 bulky feed gives fuller size in the abdomen, which supplies 



