Feeding trough

“ If during the time of their feeding, you happen to let them out to ramble for a few hours, they will lose more good Flesh in that time, than they can regain in three Days; therefore when you have once put them up, keep them up till they are fit to kill: but if you would have them very fat, put them in a Coop for a Week or ten Days before you kill them, and feed them with Barley-Meal and Water, made almost as thick as Paste; and always let there be several of them together, for a single one will pine, and lose Flesh, instead of increasing it by Eating. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On poor, uncultivated lands where the disease appears yearly, or at short intervals, intensive culture with heavy manuring, and the heavy feeding of the herd on grain products, linseed cake, etc., will often banish the trouble. ”

“ But that food will not always last; it is gradually exhausted, and we fail to feed them again, or in that proportion their necessities require. They languish and die; a disease seizes them, and we complain and grumble at the dispensations of Providence.
Think of it, fellow fruit-growers; let us begin to treat our fruit trees as we do our hogs and our hens, and see if we can not be favored with corresponding results. It is doubtless true that many of the diseases to which our trees are subject are caused by starvation, or by improper feeding ”

“ 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. ”

“ No troublesome symptoms usually result from this full feeding, and the patient may be made to eat more largely by being fed by her attendant. People who will eat very little if they feed themselves, often take a large amount when fed by another; and, as I have said before, nothing is more tiresome than for a patient flat on her back to cut up her food and to use the fork or spoon. By the plan of feeding we thus gain doubly. ”

“ Now with regard to What to do.—As the thrush is generally owing to improper and to artificial feeding, if the child be at the breast, keep him, for a time entirely to it. Do not let him be always sucking, as that will not only fret his mouth, but will likewise irritate and make sore the mother’s nipple.
If he be not at the breast, but has been weaned, then keep him for a few days entirely to a milk diet—to the milk of ONE cow—either boiled, if it be hot weather, to keep it sweet; or unboiled, in cool weather—fresh as it comes from the cow. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Feeding.—Skunks should have plenty of food especially during the summer and they should be fed at regular intervals, giving just enough for a meal each time. It is advisable to give a mixed diet, partly animal and partly vegetable. They will eat almost all kinds of flesh and fish, table scraps, fruits, especially if very ripe, melons, sweet potatoes, berries, etc. One of the most satisfactory foods is bread and milk, but it is considered too expensive by some people. ”

“ All except a few of the most confirmed and long-standing cases of heaves are entirely relieved by this course of feeding, and that relief is permanent as long as the feed is continued, and it frequently effects a cure so radical that the disease will not return on a change of food. ”

“ Probably you have fed the same thing every day for the last six months, and the hens are getting tired of it. Hens are like other people—they like a change of provender once in awhile—especially when confined indoors. Sometimes over-feeding will cause indigestion, and then the biddies will exhibit the symptoms you describe. In either case, let the fowls fast for a whole day, and then for a few days feed lightly with food that is different from what they have been living on. ”

“ The cause of the obstruction on which the disease depends, is over-feeding—permitting the animal to indulge its appetite to the utmost extent that gluttony may prompt, and the capacity of its stomach admits. ”

“ In the present discussion the digestive capability under contemplation is that of an individual who has just succeeded in ridding his system of the toxic products of food in excess of the needs of the body. Hunger has returned and feeding must be resumed. If the milk of the cow is the form in which nourishment is supplied, and if, in addition, not one pint, but, as recommended, several quarts daily are imbibed, for each quart consumed, an equivalent in flesh food of one pound is offered for digestion. ”

“ With respect to the exact routine to be pursued, no rule could be prescribed which would apply to all cases; and each individual must be governed much by circumstances, both in respect to the particular kinds of feed at different seasons of the year, and the system of feeding. ”

“ The disproportion between the size of the stomach and the quantity of water drunk tells us plainly that the horse should always be watered before feeding. One of the common errors of feeding, and the one that produces more digestive disorders than any other, is to feed too soon after a hard day's work. ”

“ All the columns in which the possessions of the peasants are entered give no answer, and can give no answer, to these questions.
Many represent to themselves the task of feeding the starving people exactly as they will represent to them- selves the same task of feeding a given number of cattle. For so many oxen they need for two hundred winter days so many puds of hay, straw, malt, grain. They get ready this amount of feed, furnish it for the herd of cattle, and have the assurance that the creatures will weather the winter. With human beings the calcula- tion is entirely different. ”

“ There is not much to be said on feeding young stock that has not already been touched in the other chapters upon feeding. There is a need for serious consideration, however, of the matter of feeding green feed. ”

“ A plentiful supply of clear cold water should always be within their reach; the food left in the trough after the animals have done eating, should be removed, and the trough thoroughly rinsed out before any more is put into it. ”

“ Whatever difference of opinion there may be with regard to the propriety of cooking the food of stock, we believe there ought not to be a doubt as to the desirability of mechanically treating the harder kinds of feeding stuff. It is quite evident that a horse fed upon hard grains of oats and wiry fibres of uncut hay or straw must expend no inconsiderable proportion of his motive power in the process of mastication. After a hard day's work of eight or ten hours he has before him the laborious task of reducing to a pulp from 12 lbs. ”

“ That life was shortened by the more rapid loss of the tissues from the disease is to be taken into account in estimating time in starvation.{42}
IV.
Feeding the sick! Who that rule in kitchens and feed the well do not realize with weariness of brain the demands of the stomach that at each meal there shall be some change in the bill of fare?
The chief reliance of physicians for the maintenance of strength while sick bodies are being cured is milk. As a food, milk was mainly destined for the calf, and not for man—certainly not after the coming of the molars. ”

“ The complete fattening of cattle is a losing business with some feeders, and a profitable one with others. Stall-feeding is a branch of rural economy which, perhaps more than any other, requires the combination of "science with practice;" yet how few feeders are there who have the slightest knowledge of the composition of food substances, or who are agreed as to the feeding value, absolute or relative, of even such well-known materials as oil-cake, straw, or oats! ”

“ The feed is all in a bunch, and the weaker chicks are crowded out, while if wet feed is thrown on the ground or in a dirty trough the chicks must swallow the adhering filth, and if any food is left over it quickly sours and becomes a menace to health. ”

“ This is evident in divers men, who whilst they were Infants were fed only with Milk, afterwards Live altogether upon Flesh, Fish, wine, and other perfectly mixt Bodies. It may be seen also in sheep, who on some of our English Downs or Plains, grow very fat by feeding upon the grasse, without scarce drinking at all. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Feeding must depend on their work, but they require feeding three times a day, with more or less corn each time, according to their work. In the fast coaching days it was a saying among proprietors, that "his belly was the measure of his food;" ”

“ Do not buy new crops of grains until well seasoned. Inferior grains like heated corn, or wheat that has sprouted, are all to be avoided. Scratch feed is not to be recommended as a steady diet, but will serve for a while. Most scratch feeds contain rye, barley and oats, all three of which I do not recommend as pigeon feed. Scratch feed also lacks peas, and these are the finest fattening and strengthening food that squabs can get. ”

“ Their over-feeding, too, has many ill effects, though perhaps not so many, or so fatal, as those arising from exposure to wet and cold; but chronic dysentry, indigestion, and their innumerable congeners are left behind to tell the tale of indiscriminate gluttony. ”

“ It is not advisable to shut them up when the time comes to fatten them; they should simply be well fed morning and evening, and permitted to range at liberty and eat all the grass possible, for grass forms a considerable portion of their food. A mixture of boiled rice, sharps and various meals should be given them in the morning, and maize or wheat at night, the latter being put in the water-trough. They should be allowed all the food they will eat for three or four weeks before killing. ”

“ Careful feeding to keep the animal constantly in good condition does something to obviate sudden plethora and its attendant dangers, and thus an allowance of grain or linseed cake through winter and early spring, or when the pastures are bare, will bring the animals through in fine condition, and ward off the danger that comes from a sudden access of rich aliment. ”

“ When stall feeding begins, cattle are led up gradually during preliminary feeding to full feeding. Full feeding means consumption of all grain and other food the animal can take without injuring digestion. A lean animal cannot be fattened quickly. Before rapid deposits of fat can occur the lean animal must be brought into a well-nourished condition. ”

“ The feeding should be done upon the principles already described, namely, to keep the birds growing in the usual way until about three or four weeks before the market when the extra food is given in as large quantities as possible for quick fattening. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Over-feeding, whether by excess of quantity or excess of stimulating constituents, is the cause of the most general diseases, the greater proportion of these diseases, and of most of the deaths from natural causes among fowls. ”

“ We have already spoken of the advantages consequent on feeding swarms for a few days after they emerge, especially if the weather should be wet, cold, or dull. It is even more important to see that in spring and autumn, if the stocks require food, it is given to them. With the old-fashioned skep there are difficulties in the successful supply of nourishment. ”

“ Down on the ground near the drinking water you should place the birds' food, which usually consists of little balls of a paste made out of figs and corn meal: but for twenty days before you intend to market your thrushes it is customary to feed them more heavily, both by giving them more food and that chiefly of finer meal. ”