Artificial feeding

“ Artificial Feeding. There is no entirely adequate substitute for satisfactory maternal nursing, and any other food that is given to the young baby is at best a makeshift. Considering the baby’s delicacy, therefore, and his urgent needs, no pains should be spared to make any artificial food that is given to him, as satisfactory as possible. And no matter what it costs, he should have only the freshest, cleanest and purest milk that can be bought. ”

“ All artificial foods require longer time for digestion than the food supplied by nature; and when making use of such, great care should be taken to avoid too frequent feeding. It is absolutely essential for the perfect health of an infant as well as of grown people, that the digestive organs shall enjoy a due interval of rest between the digestion of one meal and the taking of another. As a rule, a new-born infant may be safely fed, when using human milk, not oftener than once in every three or four hours. When fed upon artificial food, once in five or six hours is often enough for feeding. ”

“ Where artificial feeding becomes necessary, then the preparation of the baby-food is of primary importance. Cow's milk is, of course, the logical food, but taken whole, that is, the entire milk, it is too high in proteids, and deficient in sugar; therefore, in order to make a healthful infant-food, it must be modified according to the requirements of the infant body. ”

“ History of Artificial Feeding.—It is uncertain during what respective periods of human history the practice of rearing infants by means of wet-nurses, and the practice of rearing them by artificial feeding, first made their appearance. To-day, certainly, both these methods of rearing infants prevail very widely—far more widely than at any former time. No official statistics exist showing the proportion of all infants born alive that are suckled by the mother, suckled by wet-nurses, and artificially fed, respectively. ”

“ Some of us believe the solution of the vexed question of the overpopulation of the earth is resident in this problem of artificial feeding, particularly as certain statistical relationships seem to be springing up between the notorious modern birth rate and inefficient maternal nourishment, and we are learning that unsatisfactory as is artificial feeding at its best and perilous as it may become, it is, in any event, much more likely to be productive of good results than the attempt to nourish an infant on the milk of the mother physically, occupationally and temperamentally unfit. ”

“ Meat and other animal products will be produced, not as luxuries for the tables of the rich, but as a means of conserving energy for human use, both directly through the food thus rescued from waste and indirectly by setting free edible plant products for man's use. The stock feeding of the future will be a very different matter from the simple grazing of cattle in summer or the lavish feeding of corn in winter. It will be a highly artificial process, dealing with feeding stuffs unfamiliar to the fathers and seeking to utilize to the utmost the energy of every available by-product. ”

“ Of such cases it is enough to say that, when a variety or strain, of animal and vegetable, is led up to unusual fecundity or of size or product of any organ, for our good, and not for the good of the plant or animal itself, it can be kept so only by high feeding and exceptional care; and that with high feeding and artificial appliances come vastly increased liability to disease, which may practically annihilate the race. ”

“ Instead of depending on the uncertain or perhaps precarious supply of the dam, which may be more at first than the young animal can consume or digest, and at other times too little for its supply, its food can, by hand-feeding, be regulated to suit the age, appetite, and purposes for which the calf is intended; other admixtures or substitutes can be introduced into the milk, and the quantity gradually increased or withdrawn at pleasure. ”

“ It is important that no great interval should elapse between the hours of feeding. The digestive apparatus of the young animal is small, and its powers of assimilation are very energetic. The food with which it is supplied should, therefore, be given in moderate quantities, and very frequently. This is, in fact, what takes place when the calf is allowed free access to its dam; for the instant it feels a desire for aliment, the supply is at once available. ”

“ Formerly, it was thought that anybody who could throw out coarse fodder and hay to cattle knew enough for all practical purposes about feeding, and that any sort of a shelter, or no shelter, if the animal survived, was sufficient. Better ideas are beginning to prevail. Few men now think they know all that can be learned about feeding stock, and those who know the most are the most anxious to learn. A thorough knowledge of feeding requires a knowledge of physiology and biology, with the chemical composition and nutritive qualities of the different kinds of food. ”

“ The inference to be drawn from this is, that when it is sought to fatten an animal rapidly, every effort must be made to restrain muscular motion so far as compatible with health. Hence, the peculiar advantage of stall-feeding, in which the animal is confined to one spot, and the more thoroughly it can be kept still, the greater will be the economy of food. ”

“ When such articles are used, cooking them is always economical. Most vegetables, when boiled or steamed, and mixed with only an eighth of their bulk of mill-feed or meal, whey, and milk left to sour, will fatten hogs fast. In this state they will eat it with avidity, and derive more benefit from it than when fed in an unfermented state. Articles of a perishable nature should be used first, to prevent waste, as it is desirable to turn all the products of the farm to the best account. Another quite important advantage of early feeding is the less trouble in cooking the food. ”

“ From the number of animals under experiment, and the well-planned and thorough methods of investigation, in all departments of the experimental work, the results obtained have been of great value, not only from the light thrown on many of the obscure processes of nutrition, but also in laying a foundation for a consistent system of feeding, in which the relations of the food consumed to the special animal products obtained, and to the value of the manure produced, as an incident of the process, are clearly traced. ”

“ These experiments prove that we must keep somewhere near a balanced ration but do not prove anything regarding a definite value of skim as a feed.
What your skim milk is worth on the farm depends altogether on how much it is needed to balance the diet in hog feeding operations. It is of much more value for little pigs than for larger hogs that are more capable of digesting grasses. ”

“ One kind of such commercial food, animal or poultry, may be fed for a few weeks; then, if desired, change to another to give the animals a slight variation. In following the 3-day feeding schedule, it is highly profitable to feed small amounts of green vegetable leaves as extras on both grain and pellet days. ”

“ As our knowledge increases, we give greater attention to the economical and efficient use of all feeds for live-stock. We cannot afford to feed even the corn stalks carelessly, either for the immediate concern of the pocket-book or for the good of the animal. The results of many experiments in feeding lead to the conclusion that a suitable daily ration for a cow giving milk and weighing 1,000 pounds should contain 24 pounds of dry matter, of which 2.5 pounds is digestible protein ”

“ In recent years no subject has received more assiduous attention from scientific men, and none has been made the object of more constant or more profound research than the questions of food and food supply. The feeding of animals and men is without question the most pressing and vital of all economic problems. ”

“ There is a great loss in feeding roots to fattening swine, without cooking. When unprepared grain is fed, it should be on a full stomach, to prevent imperfect mastication, and consequent loss of the food. It is better indeed to have it always before them. The animal machine is an expensive one to keep in motion, and it should be the object of the farmer to put his food in the most available condition for its immediate conversion into fat and muscle. ”

“ Nevertheless, it may be taken as clearly indicated that, within certain limits, high feeding, and especially high nitrogenous feeding, does increase both the yield and the richness of the milk.5 But it is evident that when high feeding is pushed beyond a comparatively limited range, the tendency is to increase the weight of the animal—that is, to favour the development of the individual, rather than to enhance the activity of the functions connected with the reproductive system. ”

“ I keep in mind, too, that much of the food taken into the average American kitchen is wasted, and that progress in the science of feeding the man will ultimately prevent this waste and, by adding to this better preparation and combination of foods, will increase to some extent the nutritive value of our present food supply. ”

“ From the moment of parting with the milk as sole nourishment, from the moment of passing on to the mixed nourishment that is peculiar to its species, the second important change in the feeding of the growing individual is accomplished. ”

“ Object.—Rational feeding of man has for its object the regulation of the food supply in accord with the demands of the body. It is based upon the same principles as the rational feeding of animals; in each, the best results in the way of health, amount of labor performed, and economy are secured when the body receives nutrients sufficient for the production of heat and energy and for the repair of worn-out tissues. Rational feeding is simply regulation of the food, both as to kind and amount, to meet the needs of the body. ”

“ Disease causes loss—disinfection prevents disease. Therefore, DISINFECT whether you see need of it or not.
Poultry Feeding
The more food the birds eat beyond bodily requirements the greater the amount of the salable products they create. Any hen that is a natural layer will turn the surplus food into eggs. If she is naturally a meat producer she will build flesh or take on fat. And the sooner the fat producers are identified and removed from the laying flock, the better for all concerned. Your birds will not "get too fat to lay"—they will get fat if they don't lay. ”

“ In the day time, whilst in the stable, each animal is allowed about 50 lb. of cut clover, and about 12 lb. of crushed oats and beans per day. The feeding is all under the charge of one person. He uses his own discretion in feeding the animals, though he is not allowed to exceed the quantities named. The horses to which I allude are the same on which the experiments commenced two years ago—six cart horses, one cart pony, and one riding horse. ”

“ The slaughter of animals for human food in itself is a barbarous practice from one point of view but if this practice is justified, as it doubtless is, by the exigencies of human nutrition, the slight degree of force which is employed in artificial fattening cannot be condemned. Moreover the artificial fattening of the fowl is of necessity a somewhat limited operation and confined to those establishments that are devoted exclusively to the production of high-grade and high-priced poultry for the market. ”

“ In connection with the feed storage there should be a place where the feed can be mixed and where feed can be cooked. Two power operated feed mixers are required as one is not sufficient during the busy season to allow the mixing and feeding of the mash for both the breeders and the young stock at the same time. ”

“ A better plan is to provide sufficient protein and minerals to give normal growth. The minimum feeding advised is to allow each day one liberal feeding of a 20-percent protein mash, or to furnish all the milk the birds will drink with a feeding of whole grain. Either the mash or the liquid milk should be used with liberal feedings of whole grain for fattening in the fall.
Good growing mashes suitable for different conditions may be made as follows:
These growing mashes are all fed with scratch grains consisting of such grains as corn, wheat, barley, and oats. ”

“ A common segar box, or any other cast-off thing, that will hold their food, is just as good as the most complicated invention; and, in common feeding, 273 there is no better mode than to scatter abroad their corn, and let them pick it up at their pleasure—when spread on a clean surface. We think, also, that, except for fattening poultry, stated hours of feeding are best for the birds themselves, and that they be fed only such quantity as they will pick up clean. Water should, if possible, be kept constantly by them ”

“ Practical men have long been of opinion that the digestion of food, either animal or vegetable,—the passing of it through the bodies of animals,—enriches its fertilizing power, weight for weight, when added to the land. Hence, in causing animals to eat up as much of the vegetable productions of the farm as possible, it is supposed that not only is so much food saved, but that the value of the remainder in fertilizing the land is greatly increased. ”

“ Flesh eating will have to be abandoned for economic reasons. Even the milk supply will necessarily be limited, for we are compelled to feed the cow 5 pounds of digestible foodstuffs to obtain 1 pound of water-free food in the form of milk. ”