82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



, It will be seen from a study of the table that good ha}- for the 

 gain made was the most costly food given, excepting where corn meal 

 was added to lot 5. These experiments were especially designed to 

 test and to elucidate this theorj' of food combinations in American 

 practice. In ever}' case but one flesh forming foods were joined to 

 carbonaceous foods, and with economy. Lot 2, on good hay, con- 

 sumed 50 lbs. hay dail}', costing 30 cents, while lot 1, on cotton 

 seed meal ate but 35 lbs. swale hay per day and 8 lbs. cotton seed 

 meal costing but 21^ cents, and gave a more valuable manure. The 

 cotton seed meal, has not onl}' returned ever}- dollar it cost and 

 more, but it has nearly doubled the market value of swale hay and 

 left a manure equal to nearly its cost in value. The dried blood that 

 I have usually paid §40 to 845 per ton for, for a manure for profit, 

 has, for 3 lbs. a day, in conjunction with 2 lbs. corn meal daily, given 

 a good growth to our steers where only 35 lbs. of straw have been 

 eaten in the place of 50 lbs. of ha}'. The cost being but 20 cents 

 per day or only § as much as on good hay. Now if we have paid 

 $45 for blood as a fertilizer, and made it pay, how much better the 

 hay, or how much cheaper the source of nitrogen, to make it as in 

 this case, first bring more than cost as a cattle food and then return, 

 say 4-5 of its original amount in the manure heap, or $36 worth of 

 manure for nothing. I value clover hay higher than I do good Eng- 

 lish hay. It contains a large proportion of flesh formers, and hence, 

 when fed in combination with those foods deficient in flesh formers 

 it takes on a value unknown to it when fed alone. 



The average result of several experiments has been, that I have 

 made as good growth on clover hay and oat straw mixed as with 

 good hay, less food of the former ration being required than of the 

 hay ration. These facts in food combination are given to illustrate 

 Si general law — a law that, observed in Maine practice, would add 

 perhaps 20 per cent, to the value of the food fed by your farmers. 

 It may be well to observe that the animals fed were of the same 

 age, weight, and breed. You can grow with proper food combina- 

 tions with your oat straw, swale hay or corn fodder, an animal as 

 fast as on good hay and do it for less money. 



If these statements are accepted as facts well proven, then we 

 are led into the practice of wide tillage quite naturally, for we can 

 dispense with hay quite largely. The feeding as proposed, will not 

 cut down the amount of stock kept but increase it ; more stock 

 being kept from an acre of straw or colrn fodder than is now kept. 



