.102 



Eations for TjIye Stock. 



[May, 



(c) To deal with the profit-sharing farm settlements in 

 one of the following ways: (1) Where the land is suitable, 

 by cutting up part of the estate into small holdings, and by 

 selling the remainder as ordinary farms; (2) By selling the 

 complete estate; (3) By retaining one, or at most two, 

 specially favourable estates (in whole or in part) in order 

 to draft thereto men displaced on other estates. 



No. 32 of the Miscellaneous Publications of the Ministry is by 



Professor T. B. Wood, of Cambridge University, and is called 



— ,. „ " Eations for Live Stock." It shows the 

 Rations for . . . , , „ 



Live Stock composition and nutritive value of many 

 feeding stuffs, the relation between live- 

 weight and food requirement, and offers the farmer a method 

 of working out suitable rations for his animals. Professor 

 Wood compares an animal with a steam engine at work 

 and points out that it must be supplied with the materials 

 necessary for fuel and repairs, the fuel of the animal being 

 carbohydrates and fats or oils, while the repairing material 

 is given in the form of albuminoids or flesh formers. He empha- 

 sises the important fact that the value of the feeding stuff 

 depends on the proportion that can be digested, and the pamphlet 

 contains figures giving the nutritive value of a large number of 

 foods and the nutritive ratio of the repair to the fuel content. 

 Then comes the question of productive feeding — the food that 

 will enable animals to increase their weight, yield more milk or 

 do more work. Advice is offered on the question of buying 

 feeding stuffs, and figures are supplied giving the best measure 

 of the relative productive value of various concentrated foods. 



An important section of the pamphlet is that dealing with 

 the general properties of feeding stuffs. It is followed by notes 

 on the rations for fattening bullocks, for cows, calves, sheep, 

 horses and pigs. Professor Wood has used the simplest possible 

 language and has been so careful to explain the principles under- 

 lying the tables accompanying the pamphlet that a very small 

 effort is required to master them. The value of these contents 

 to the practical agriculturist is undoubtedly very great. Even 

 some of our successful stock owners may find in the light of this 

 work that they have been feeding wastefully and that a better 

 balanced ration may add to the worth and condition of the 

 stock fed. 



