FARM ANIMALS 55 



transmitted to the offspring. The parents may even adopt 

 certain characteristics and then transmit these to their off- 

 spring. The offspring of parents that have been injured by 

 improper feeding, care, etc., will not be such good feeders as 

 the offspring of ancestors not thus mistreated. This should 

 put a man on his guard, either when he is buying or breeding 

 animals for his feedlot. 



Regularity in Feeding. — The animal body is a machine that 

 runs itself. It gets into habits and if the animal is to do well 

 these habits must be conformed to. On account of this fact 

 an animal should be fed regularly, at the same hours each day. 

 Every observing man has noticed that when the regular meal- 

 time comes along considerable hunger is apparent. If the 

 meal is not taken this hunger disappears in part even though 

 the need for food is greater after mealtime than at mealtime 

 when the meal was not taken. When the regular mealtime 

 comes the machinery of digestion and metabolism is set in 

 motion. If the food is not there to be worked upon there is a 

 waste of digestive fluids and a loss of energy together with a 

 weakening of the body generally. If then a meal is taken late 

 it cannot be so well digested or used. The good stockman, 

 therefore, feeds his stock regularly. 



QUALITY 



Quality is one of the most important and one of the most 

 frequently misused of all the terms that are dealt with in 

 animal husbandry. The term is frequently used to designate 

 everything in an animal that is good as distinguished from 

 everything that is bad. The term, however, has a very defi- 

 nite meaning. Quality really refers to the fineness of grain 

 of the body tissues and especially of the muscle fiber. If this 

 is fine the animal is fine throughout. So we judge fineness of 

 quality or good quality by the fineness of hair and bone and 

 smoothness of skin. 



Fine or good quality in an animal is the same as fine or good 

 quality in an orange or in a piece of cloth. Good quality in 

 an anjmal means a fine muscle fiber, and this means lots of 

 muscle cells. This again results in lots of power in the horse 



