in all vegetables, but chiefly in such as
form the most concentrated food. These blood (and muscle) formers are
characterized by containing about fifteen and a half per cent. of
nitrogen; and hence are called nitrogenous substances. They are, also,
often designated as the albuminous bodies.

The bony framework of the animal owes its solidity to phosphate of lime,
and this substance must be furnished by the food. A perfect food must
supply the animal with these three classes of bodies, and in proper
proportions. The addition of a small quantity of a food, rich in oil and
albuminous substances, to the ordinary kinds of feed, which contain a
large quantity of vegetable fibre or woody matter, more or less
indigestible, but, nevertheless, indispensable to the herbivorous
animals, their digestive organs being adapted to a bulky food, has been
found highly advantageous in practice. Neither hay alone nor
concentrated food alone gives the best results. A certain combination of
the two presents the most advantages.

Some who have used cotton-seed cake have found difficulty in inducing
cattle to eat it. By giving it at first in small doses, mixed with other
palatable food, they soon learn to eat it with relish. Cotton-seed cake
is much richer in oils and albuminous matters than the linseed cake. A
correspondingly less quantity will therefore be required. Three pounds
of this cotton-seed cake are equivalent to four of linseed cake of
average quality.

During the winter season, as has been already remarked, a frequent
change of food is especially necessary, both as contributions to the
general health of animals, and as a means of stimulating the digestive
organs, and thus increasing the secretion of milk. A mixture used as cut
feed and well moistened is now especially beneficial, since concentrated
food, which would otherwise be given in small quantities, may be united
with larger quantities of coarser and less nutritive food, and the
complete assimilation of the whole be better secured. On this subject it
has been sensibly observed that the most nutritious kinds of food
produce little or no effect when they are not digested by the stomach,
or if the digested food is not absorbed by the lymphatic vessels, and
not assimilated by the various parts of the body. Now, the normal
functions of the digestive organs not only depend upon the composition
of the food, but also on its volume. The volume or bulk of the food
contributes to the