26 ILLINOIS dairymen's ASSOCIATION. 



which the body becomes diseased. These elements are constantly used up 

 or consumed as the functions of the animal organisms are exercised. Their 

 waste can be supplied only through three channels— food, water and air. 

 How important, then, that the food should be properly balanced, the water 

 pure and taken in due proportions, and the air be pure and abundant ! 



But we will confine ourselves to the consideration of the food ration. 



Science has been working on the food question, and science works for 

 everybody. It is only necessary that we should avail ourselves of its teach- 

 ings in order to get very valuable aid. 



But to the German experiment stations are we mainly indebted for prac- 

 tical information in regard to the proper composition of foods for bovine 

 stock. We have, however, men in our own country who are working scien- 

 tifically in the same direction, and they have been able to not only confirm 

 the principles laid down by German experimenters, but to modify the prac- 

 tical details in their application in this country, where results are somewhat 

 varied by the character of both soil and climate. 



I shall aim to avoid the use of technical words as much as possible ; but 

 there are certain words with the meaning of which every farmer should be- 

 come acquainted, if he is not so already. 



roods may be divided into two classes— fat and heat producers, and 

 muscle and motor producers. In the * fat and heat-producers the 

 carbons predominate, and so they are called carbonaceous, and carbo- 

 hydrates or carb-hydrates. Carbon exists in a pure state in the 

 diamond. It is nearly pure in coal, and it is the principal ingre- 

 dient in v^ood of all kinds. When oxygen— which is the gas in the atmos- 

 phere that sustains life when we breathe it, and without which we can live 

 but a few minutes— when oxygen unites with carbon it produces heat, and if 

 the union is rapid enough, it produces a blaze which gives light. The final 

 result of the union of oxygen with carbon— as with our kitchen fires 

 and lights, and when we breathe the air— is carbonic acid gas, which perme- 

 ates our atmosphere in sufiicient quantities to feed and build up the entire 

 vegetable kingdom— for carbonic acid gas is food for plants, and from it is 

 built up the chief part of their structure. When vegetables feed on carbonic 

 acid gas, they set the oxygen free for the use of the animal creation in 

 breathing ; and when we breathe the air, we do the very opposite— appro- 

 priate the oxygen and make carbonic acid gas for the use of plants. This 

 mutual interchange is constantly going on between the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms. 



Fats, oils, starches, sugars, woody fibre, and so on, are composed largely 

 of carbon, and hence are heat producers in the animal organism when taken 

 as food by men or animals. These, as I have said, are carbonaceous foods, 

 and are railed carb-hydrates or carbo-hydrates, which means that they are 

 a composition of carbon and water, the water being composed largely of 

 hydrogen, and hence the term '' hydrate." Garb or carbo is a contraction of 

 carbon, and hydrate indicates a compound in which hydrogen predominates. 

 And hence we have carbo-hydrates, combinations of carbon and water, which 

 when consumed as food, produce heat, or are stored away in the form of fat, 

 as a source of future heat, which may be drawn on for keeping up the ani- 

 mal temperature when there is a lack of heat-producing material in the food. 



