CHAPTER XIII 

 CATTLE FOODS— NATURAL PRODUCTS 



The number of cattle foods now available for use 

 is very large, and the list appears to be constantly in- 

 creasing. Not only have several fodder plants been 

 added to those formerly grown, but we have now a great 

 variety of waste products from the manufacture of oils, 

 starch, and human foods that are being placed upon 

 the market as feeding-stuffs. At one time farmers pro- 

 duced all their cattle ate, and this was done without 

 going outside a very limited list of forage plants and 

 grains. All this is changed, especially in the older, more 

 thickly-settled portions of the United States, so that 

 considerable knowledge is now needed regarding the 

 composition and specific characters of the numerous 

 kinds of feeding-stuffs if they are to be used intelligently. 



302. Classificatioii of cattle foods. — It will aid in 

 discussing this branch of our subject if we first note the 

 divisions into which the materials used for feeding farm 

 animals are grouped. There is more than one basis upon 

 which it is possible to make these divisions — ^botanical 

 relations, the portion of the plant used, whether stem or 

 fruit, and chemical composition. As a matter of fact, all 

 these and other distinctions are involved in the classi- 

 fication of the cattle foods in common use at the pres- 

 ent time. 



The feeding-stuffs of vegetable origin are generally 

 divided into four classes: (1) Forage crops, consisting 



(219) 



