Desirable Agricultural Dicpenments. 
263 
these were based I cannot say ; nor can I state the test condi- 
tions under which the trials were carried out. Many thousands 
of trials would be necessary to inspire confidence in such 
averages, and even then the conclusions would not necessarily 
be acceptable in respect of other than German breeds of live 
stock. The figures, I believe, have been altered more than once 
in accordance with the teachings of extended experience. To 
say the least, it is doubtful whether any number of trials would 
justify a precise statement of the average number of pounds of 
albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, fat, and total nutritive substances 
required daily by cattle of all sizes and qualities per thousand 
pounds of live-weight. The food requirements of animals vary 
so greatly that averages embracing the “ scrub ” beasts of the 
American prairies and the most perfected specimens of Bates or 
Booth Shorthorns, or the stunted and skinny half-bred Kerry 
of the Irish hills and the broad-backed Hereford of the Severn 
pastures, would be open to justifiable suspicion. Such trials 
are valuable as indicating approximately the proportions of 
albuminoids and carbo-hydrates most conducive to the advan- 
tageous feeding of animals for meat-making or milk-producing ; 
but I doubt whether any statements of the quantities of food 
constituents required for animals of given live weights can be 
otherwise than misleading, unless confined to specified breeds 
and qualities. 
To show how lacking the elements of calculation are in 
fixity, it is only necessaiy to ask what is meant by “ food 
requirements.” Requirements for what ? In the case of 
fattening oxen, the requirements vary according to the pace of 
fattening. A beast fed gradually for the butcher would need 
less food than one forced for exhibition. It might be possible 
to ascertain the quantities of food constituents necessary to 
keep a particular animal of given live-weight in an attained 
state of fatness; and it might even be allowed that if such 
knowledge were obtained with respect to a thousand well-bred 
Shorthorns, for example, the averages of quantities would be 
acceptable approximations, as far as cattle of this particular 
class are concerned ; but that averages of the same kind applicable 
to all breeds and qualities of fattening cattle would be trust- 
worthy I cannot admit. It appears to me, therefore, that Dr. 
WolflTs figures, so far as they relate to quantities of food required 
by animals of given live-weight, are of no practical value 
as a guide to the producer of beef, and that they do not afford 
trustworthy evidence as to the proportionate consumption of 
cattle of the large and the small breeds. 
One great advantage of the first set of trials suggested 
