183 MANUAL OF CATTLE-FEEDING, 



be main tallied in tlie vessel. If a larger stream be ad- 

 mitted, tlie depth of water in the vesbel will at once begin 

 to inciease, but, at the same time, the pressure on the bot- 

 tom, and consequently the rapidity of the outward How 

 through the aperture, hiereaees, and outtiow and inflow 

 soon come into equilibrimn. If the supply be diminished, 

 the level of the water sinks till the hydrostatic pressure 

 causes the outflow to again equal the inflow. 



The Protein CJonsumptioa during Fasting is not a 

 Measure of the Amount necessary to sustain Life, 

 as was formerly assumed to be the ease. If to a fasting 

 animal we give an amount of protein exactly equal to that 

 daily consumed, this protein is converted into circulatoiy 

 protein, and the consumption is correspondingly increased. 

 In order to mahitain an animal in average condition, we 

 must give it, approximately, from two to two and a half 

 times as much protein in its food as is consumed in the 

 body during hunger, and when the food has been rich in 

 albuminoids a much greater quantity is necessary to main- 

 tain the equilibrium once established. 



When equilibrium is once reached, either by a gain or 

 loss of flesh, as the case may be, exactly the same kind 

 and quantity of food is necessary to keep the animal un- 

 altered in the bodily condition in which it then is. Every 

 state of the body, then, demands for its maintenance a cer- 

 tain definite fodder, and we cannot well speak of a super- 

 fluous consumption of food by animals as by plants, i, e., 

 of a wholly useless and unnecessary excess of some one nu- 

 trient. A waste of fodder, however, often occurs in prac- 

 tice, in so far as more fodder is given than is necessary for 

 the object in view, e, g., in the production of milk or wool 

 and the feeding of draught animals and young cattle. 

 Even in fattening, as we shall see later, the same or a bet- 



