STUDYING FEEDING VALUES 79 



elements for growth and productiveness. This is one of 

 the reasons why beans cannot be fed in large proportion : 

 fowls do not like them, and, when fed, they must be 

 partially disguised by combining them with something 

 well liked. 



It is to be understood that feeds for herbivorous 

 animals must always consist almost wholly of herbage, 

 and that the animal eating mixed vegetable and animal 

 rations in a state of nature must always be kept severely 

 on the safe side ; as a surplus of rich, animal food is 

 almost sure to result in slow poisoning, undermining, and 

 finally ruining the bird's health. This is a cardinal 

 error, since on keeping an animal in health depends, in 

 the final test, the per cent of profit. 



Men, in general, are sick, it is said, because they do 

 not eat properly ; or because they are dissipated ; or be- 

 cause they lack self-control in some one or more of many 

 ways. If we cannot feed ourselves so as to keep in 

 health, what chance is there that we can do better with 

 the animals in our charge .■' These animals are not 

 under their own control. They should be free from all 

 damage caused by lack of self-control, because they and 

 their feed are under our control. But that fact may 

 only make things worse ; it depends on us. Yet, as 

 soon as we begin to handle them for expected profit, 

 the profit question takes hold of the handling and we 

 tend no longer to feed them for the best health, but for 

 the best immediate production, which we presume to be 

 for the best profit. 



This presumption is, to a degree, false, because 

 founded on a wrong premise. The premise is that the 

 feed which brings the most winter eggs — for instance 



