Food and Feeding. All true lovers of animals enjoy watchiDg them 

 eat. lu the great zoological gardens crowds assemble to see the lions 

 eat and to' feed the monkeys peanuts and candy. There is a sense of 

 pleasure in watching our farm animals with hearty appetite eating their 

 grain in the manger. The most successful feeders study the appetites of 

 their stock, and enjoy giving changes of diet and noting the relish shown 

 by the animal in eating of it. 



Of the foods fed, horses prefer oats or corn. Cattle and sheep relish 

 both of these, as well as bran and oil meal, while pigs enjoy corn or 

 shorts or middlings best. In fact a large share of the pigs grown in the 

 United States are fed on corn or its products. 



All classes of stock, however, enjoy and need herbage in some form, 

 either dry or green. Horses are usually fed timothy hay, and cattle 

 cl iver and corn fodder, green or drv while sheep need clover or some 

 kind of fiue grass, as, for example, Kentucky blue grass. This last is 

 the best pasture grass we have, though for pigs nothing is better than 

 green clover. 



Now, that we know what foods are used, how shall the animals be fed ? 

 Shall they be fed at any regular hours? Is there a good and a bad way 

 to feed ? Suppose we say, that the best way to feed horses is to give 

 them water first, then some grain, and last, hay. Is that right? Is that 

 the way you do at home? I think horses should be watered before eat- 

 ing. That is, so they will not wash their food down before they have 

 ground it up well in the stomach. But suppose you ask a few men you 

 know, who have horses, when they give them water, and report on this 

 subject. 



Cattle are usually fed their grain first, and then the hay, or coarse 

 fodder, or pasture. Horses and cattle must be fed morning, noon and 

 night, although grain is not usually fed cattle at noon. Much, however, 

 depends upon circumstances, for horses that are hard worked, or cattle 

 that are being fattened, or heavily milked, require more nutriment than 

 do others. Sheep and pigs should be fed at morning and night, but if 

 being fattened, it is best to feed them three times a day. 



It is important that all kinds of stock be fed only such an amount as 

 will be entirely eaten, and with a relish, especially the grain. With some 

 coarse hays or clover there always is necessarily some woody material left 

 uneaten. 



Here is a good chance to make some observations. What do the live 



stock you are acquainted with eat? How much is fed them of this or 



that? At what hours of day are they fed ? Do you know how fast they 



grow? There are sheep and pigs on many farms, where simple feeding 



experiments might be conducted. Let us take two lambs about the 



same size, and feed one corn meal and the other ground oats, and see 



which will grow the best. We should have scales, and the lambs should 



be weighed occasionally, say once a week, and an accurate record kept of 



