EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 235 



While a ration shonld be balanced in the sense that the relative pro- 

 portion of the protein and carbohydrates should be normal, it by no 

 means follows that because a ration is balanced it is therefore suitable 

 to the animals to which it is to be offered or is the most economical to be 

 constructed out of the materials at hand. There are other factors to be 

 considered beside the chemical composition of the feeds. For economical 

 reasons the animal ought to be urged to consume as much as it can well 

 digest. The ration ought, therefore to be palatable. In the winter the 

 digestive organs are apt to become partly clogged or to become consti- 

 pated. The ration ought therefore to be succulent. Various combina- 

 tions of given feeding stuffs are possible to form a balanced ration. Such 

 a combination ought to be selected as will approximate the theoretical 

 ration and yet will cost as little as possible. The farmer never feeds 

 his stock solely to consider their physiological requirements. He feeds 

 them to make money. The cost of the ration must always be considered. 

 With these thoughts in mind the purely mechanical part of calculating 

 rations is here given, taking the work with a dairy herd as an illustra- 

 tion. 



A dairy herd is to be fed during the winter selecting from the follow- 

 ing list of materials which the farmer has on hand, and supplementing 

 these feeding stuffs with others selected from the list in the latter part 

 of the table. The problem is to determine economical rations, selling 

 grains grown on the farm and purchasing commercial feeding stuffs 

 when it is economical to do so. The prices given are estimated and 

 the rations determined are true for these prices alone. If the market 

 values change and there is no large supply on hand it is probable that 

 the farmer should change his ration for his herd to correspond to the 

 new arrangement of prices. 



FEEDING STUFFS GROWN OF THE FARM. 



Per ton. 



Clover hay $6.00 



Timothv hay 8 . 00 



Silage ' 2.50 



Shelled Corn 20.00 



Oats * 20.00 



Barley 17.50 



Mangolds 2.50 



Millet hay 5.00 



Corn stalks 3 . 00 



Oat straw 2.00 



FEEDING STUFFS IN THE MARKET. 



Linseed meal, o. p $28.50 



Wheat bran 16.00 



Wheat middlings 17.00 



Gluten meal 24.00 



Buckwheat middling 25.00 



Malt sprouts 17.50 



Cotton seed meal 26.00 



