426 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Bullocks fed only on turnips and straw grown in certain 

 districts increase in weight as rapidly as they do in other 

 districts where they receive 4 lb. of good cake daily in addition. 

 Three sets of turnips obtained from different sources were 

 analysed by Aitken ' ; each set consisted of two sacks dis- 

 tinguished by numbers only, the one containing good fattening 

 turnips, the other roots of very poor quality. In every case 

 he selected the poor turnips as those likely to be best for 

 feeding. If analyses gave no information, the odds would be 

 7 to 1 against his making the wrong choice three times running. 

 Lawes, 2 Warington, 3 Hendrick 4 and Hall and Russell 5 may 

 be quoted as confirming this inadequacy of present methods on 

 which scientific values are now based ; as such methods are 

 inadequate to measure the feeding quality of the main part of 

 the ration, they cannot show the kind and quantity of cakes or 

 grains required to supplement an unknown deficiency. 



Ingle 6 has tabulated and discussed British feeding experi- 

 ments, dealing with 989 cattle and 2,765 sheep. His graphs 

 compare separately " Digestible Protein," " Digestible Starch," 

 "Total Digestible Matter" and "Albuminoid Ratio" with 

 increase. If " Starch Equivalent " and " Digestible Protein," as 

 ordinarily calculated, are actually a measure of feeding power, 

 such a large number of animals, viewed statistically, should 



1 Trans. Highland and Agric. Society, 1889, p. 253, and 1893, p. 356 (foot). 



2 Agric. Student's Gazette 1892, p. 1. 



3 Ibid. 1893, p. 6. 



4 Trans. Highland and Agric. Soc. 191 1, p. 191. 



5 Agricultural Science, iv. pp. 366-70. 



6 Trans. Highland and Agric. Soc. 1909, pp. 196-254, and 1910, pp. 168-257. 



