264 THE FEEDING OP ANIMALS 



starch and other bodies, whose net value in nourishing an 

 animal is quite surely greater than that of fiber and gums 

 found in such abundance in the hays and other fodders. 

 The work of masticating fibrous materials is greater than 

 with sugar or starch, and less is digested. The terms 

 protein and carbohydrates do not signify the same com- 

 pounds or the same values when applied to different 

 feeding-stuffs. 



357. Classification of feeds according to the propor- 

 tions of nutrients. — ^The relative proportion of nitrog- 

 enous and non-nitrogenous compounds in feeding-stuffs 

 is greatly varied. There is no fixed proportion in the 

 same species, even, but it varies to some extent with the 

 season, period of cutting, and other conditions. At the 

 same time, there are differences of composition between 

 several groups of feeding-stuffs that are constant within 

 not very wide limits, and which it is important to recognize. 



358. Misleading terms for feeding-stuffs. — ^There 

 are a few terms that are popularly used to differentiate 

 feeding-stuffs which are misleading. For instance, corn 

 meal is often spoken of as "carbonaceous" in contrast 

 to cottonseed meal, which is called "nitrogenous." It may 

 be seen by reference to preceding data that there is a 

 higher proportion of carbon in the proteins than in 

 starch or sugars. Cottonseed meal is more carbonaceous 

 than corn meal, rather than less so. Such a distinction is 

 therefore absurd. 



"Heat-forming" is another term often applied to 

 foods rich in carbohydrates, while the more highly nitrog- 

 enous materials are characterized as "muscle-forming," a 

 distinction apparently based upon the facts that carbo- 

 hydrates are usually largely burned in the animal body, 

 and that the food proteins are the source of the body 



