ART OF THE FEEDER.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17412, 26 May 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

ART OF THE FEEDER.

STOCK HUSBANDRY.

ANCIENT METHODS REVIEWED

The stock breeder and feeder will find much that is interesting and instructive in Professor Wilson's recent publication, "Principles of Stock Feeding." Plenty of dry matter appears in the pages, especially those upon which feeding standards are analysed and reviewed, but the author has introduced many succulent details about the feeding methods practised in ancient times, and the whole makes up an excellently balance ration for the studious reader who wishes to learn more about animal nutrition and stock husbandry. Professor W'ilson traces the history of all the accepted scientific pronouncements, reviews them in the light of the latest scientific findings, and points out several errors in the traditional standards. Although *he successive findings of the chemists from Davy onwards, have been fully and carefully reviewed, the real value of the volume, however, rests in the results obtained in actual practice. Before turnips were grown in England the professor tells us, the bullock was kept at the plough till he was eight or nine years old. A century ago he made an average increase of about lib. a day, and at four or five years old weighed 13 or 14 cwt.; to-day bullocks which have been stored are expected to put on about 21b. a day while fattening, and bullocks grown and fattened simultaneously to make a still higher increase and go to the butcher when fifteen or eighteen months old-. The introduction of roots, and later of cake, has done much to improve the standard of animal output, but both roots and cake were fed wastefully at first. Roots were often fed where they had grown, to both cattle and sheep, sometimes with, but usually without, hay or straw. When pulled and carted in, was not an unusual allowance for cows and bul.locks, and some of the bullocks being prepared for the early Smithfield shows consumed over a stone of linseed cake a day. By the time roots and cake had both been a quarter of a century in use the ordinary fattening bullock's daily ration was about t cwt. of roots and 2 or 3 lb. of cake, with hay or straw. The amount of hay and straw produced being but slightly altered, roots and cake made a clear addition to the food to be consumed, and, therefore, to the stock to be fed on the farm. The subsequent introduction of dissolved bones and I superphosphate increased both roots and straw, and made a further addition to the food to be consumed and the stock to be fed.

A century ago British farmers began to make experiments in fattening cattle and sheep, and to publish the results. Thirty years later, Lawes and Gilbert joined them and were followed by.the chemists of the national agricultural societies, and as agricultural colleges were established, the professors of such had farms. These experimenters, assuming that the roots and long fodder fed must vary with the farm, and that the quantities and proportions in which they were fed made no great economic difference, gave their attention chiefly to concentrates. Some fed higher qualities of long fodder against lower, but their experiments were neither numerous enough to suggest a general rule, and their attention was directed still more closely to concentrates by the findings of the chemists and physiologists. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the belief began to gain ground that specialists in other subjects, especially in chemistry, might have something to say which might be useful to the firmer, and the original Board of Agriculture sought the advice of Sir Humphrey Davy. The table of nutritive values which Davy evolved proved lo be unsound, but it marked a definite advance in thought. Thaer, the Hanoverian physician, working at the same time as Davy, went farther than the versatile English 'scientist. Timer's methods, in common with Davy's, consisted in assessing the soluble substances which were believed to be nutritious —gluten, starch, sugar, etc. —but whe-eas Davy found that only soluble substances could be nutritious, the Hanoverian came to the conclusion that at least ; one kind of fibre (mangel) had some ! nutritive value. Boussingault was the first experimenter to appeal to the animal through the weighbridge. The work of all these pioneers, as also that, of Liebig, Kuhn and Wolff, is reviewed by the author, who follows the trend of research right up to the work of Kellner and Armsby. on whose experiments modern feeding standards are based.

The author points out that appreciation of the importance of minerals in the feeding of stock is of comparatively' recent date. At first minerals were thought to be necessary for bone formation only, and bones were structure to which the muscles were attached. Now, however, it is known that minerals are necessary for other work also, and that the skeleton is both a framework and a mineral store. In the words of Professor Wilson — "The skeleton is a kind of blank, whereat one time minerals may be deposited, at another withdrawn, but where overdrawing may be disastrous to both banker and depositor." Discussing the mineral content of certain rations, he indicates that clovers are necessary in the pastures for sheep, otherwise the animals will not obtain sufficient lime. He offers a reliable guide to the supplying of mineral deflclences by,the use of chalk, bone flour and salt. The need for early-maturing animals is stressed, "in the days when only

mature stock were put up to fatten the question of breed did not count for what it does to-day. The latermaturing breeds, provided they were beef sorts, were just is popular as any others, but 10-day the early maturing breeds and crosses are naturally in most demand for the production of young beef."