226 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FEEDING STANDARDS. 



It is evident that tables which give, for the different feeding stuflPs, 

 the amounts of dry matter and of digestible protein, carbohydrates and 

 fat, can be of but little use to the farmer who does not know how much 

 of each of these materials a cow requires per day. These tables aid 

 him by translating the various foods into terms common to all of tliem. 

 A practical feeder has found that 35 pounds of silage, 10 pounds of 

 clover hay and 10 pounds of wheat bran per day make a ration that 

 keeps a thousand pound cow in good condition and allows a full flow 

 of milk. A trial of this ration for a period of reasonable length, say 

 for a whole winter, noting the results in the increase of live weight of 

 the cow or in milk and butter yielded, is a valuable experiment. Other 

 dairymen want to profit by the results of this experiment but one of 

 them has silage and no clover hay, and another has clover hay but no 

 silage. How can these cow feeders gain anything from the experience 

 of the first dairman? 



THE GERMAN STANDARD. 



Beginning in Germany and France a host of experiments were per- 

 formed with dairy cows in full milk. All sorts of fodders and grain 

 feeds were used. A record was kept of the amounts of each consumed, 

 the resulting yields in milk and butter were recorded, the various foods 

 were analyzed and digestion experiments performed with them. From 

 the results of multitude of such experiments performed partly by prac- 

 tical feeders and partly by the German Experiment Station, Dr. Emil 

 Wolff, the Director of the Hohenheim Experiment Station, after careful 

 study proposed a feeding standard for milk cows per day and thousand 

 pounds live weight. Taking the average of a great number of experi- 

 ments and practical feeding trials he found that the medium sized cows 

 of Germany giving a satisfactory tlow of milk, required sutficient food 

 to furnish daily 24 pounds of dry matter; that in this dry matter there 

 were two and one-half pounds of digestible protein. He found further 

 that, with the ordinary feeding stuffs obtaining in Germany, 24 pounds 

 of dry matter containing 2.5 pounds of protein would contain also 12.5 

 pounds of carbohydrates, and a little less than one-half pound of fat. 



Prof. Wolff farther suggested that to secure the best results, for 

 every pound of protein in the ration there should be fed about five and 

 four-tenths pounds of non-nitrogenous material. It is believed that one 

 pound of fat is equal in feeding value to 2.4 pounds of digestible car- 

 bohydrates. In estimating the non-nitrogenous materials to compare 

 with the protein, the fat of the ration is multiplied by two and four- 

 tenths and added to the digestible carbohydrates. 



AMERICAN STANDARD. 



In January, 1894, a bulletin, entitled "One Hundred American Ra- 

 tions for Dairy Cows," written by Prof. F. W. Woll, was issued by the 

 Wisconsin Experiment Station. In this bulletin the author compiled 



