150 WlSGONSm STATE AQRIGULTURAL SOGIETY, 
cheapest, and the oxen flourished as well upon it as upon rations 
much more costly, having the albuminoids present in greater propor¬ 
tions. The proportions above given are of the total crude material; 
the proportion of digestible albuminoids to carbohydrates was as 
one to twelve. Hence, we may conclude that oxen performing no 
labor require for one part of digestible albuminoids twelve parts of 
digestible carbohydrates. If animals are performing work, giving 
milk or storing up fat, the proportion of albuminoids must be in¬ 
creased. With milch cows, it has been found by a series of exper¬ 
iments, similar to those above stated, to be one pound of digestible 
albuminoids to 5^ of carbohydrates. 
These experiments indicate, if they do not fully prove, that ani¬ 
mals digest these different food-substances, the albuminoids and 
carbohydrates, in proportions that are constant when performing 
the same kind of work, and that when fed in proportions differing 
from those obtained by experiment, they are less thoroughly di¬ 
gested, and in so far there is a waste of fodder. 
Again, a large number of carefully conducted experiments have 
shown that, while there is quite a wide range in the requirements 
of different animals, a milch cow will, on the average, thoroughly 
digest daily from 24 to 28 pounds of dry food for each thousand 
pounds live weight of the animal. (By dry food, is meant the res¬ 
idue of food, hay, grain, etc., that would remain after expelling all 
moisture by subjecting it to a temperature of 212"^ F., that of boil¬ 
ing water.) 
This 24 to 28 pounds of dry food should contain about one-ninth 
its weight of digestible albuminoids, one-half of digestible carbo¬ 
hydrates, and one-thirtieth of fats. These numbers may not ex¬ 
press, with mathematical exactness, the amount of food required 
by animals, but being the results of carefully conducted experi¬ 
ments, during which the animals were frequently weighed, the 
amount of all food accurately taken, the percentage of albuminoids, 
fats and carbohydrates in the food, and the amount of each di¬ 
gested, determined by chemical analysis, they come with a weight 
of authority that entitles them to the careful consideration of all 
who are feeding stock. They furnish the data upon which a ra¬ 
tional method of feeding may be based, and it cannot be wisdom 
on the part of stock owners to continue in the old way, regardless 
of these sources of instruction. 
