236 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The wise dairyman keeps a record of the amount of coarse feed he 

 has on hand. He knows how many tons of sihige he has. This stuff 

 is not salable and must be fed. His clover hay he will feed to cows and 

 sheep, his timothy hay to horses and, if there be a surplus, perhaps to 

 his cattle, depending upon the cost of selling and hauling to market 

 and hauling back some substitute. His corn stalks, millet hay, and pos- 

 sibly part of his oat straw he will feed. What the proportion of clover 

 hay, millet hay and corn stalks in the ration shall be, will depend upon 

 the quantity of each that the farmer has on hand. 



For the purpose of illustration let us take the problem presented by a 

 certain farmer in the State who had ten cows, fresh in the fall which • 

 he wished to feed to good advantage through the winter. His silo was 

 large, but there was but thirty tons of silage available for his cows. 

 Ten tons of clover hay, eight tons of corn stalks, five tons of timothy 

 hay and an unlimited amount of oat straw constituted his roughage. He 

 had uii hand eight hundred bushpl« of oats and five tons of shelled corn. 

 He could buy the feeding stuffs in the market at the prices mentioned. 

 How shall he go to work to construct his ration? 



Beginning at the first of November and feeding through to the tenth 

 of May he would need to prepare for two hundred days. Leaving out 

 his timothy hay he would find on hand enough roughage to fur- 

 nish a daily ration, consisting of thirty pounds of silage, ten pounds 

 of clover hay, and eight pounds of corn stalks for each cow. He would 

 have shelled corn enough in addition to furnish five pounds per cow 

 and oats enough, if he cared to feed them, to furnish fully twelve pounds 

 per day. He can sell the oats at $20.00 per ton and he can buy bran 

 at 116.00 per ton. Shall he sell the oats? Let us compare the grain 

 feeds on hand and the feeds to be bought in the markets as to the value 

 in dollars and cents of one pound of protein in each. Consulting the 

 tables of analyses of feeding stuffs, it is found that one pound of lin- 

 seed meal contains .293 lb. protein. A ton, 2,000 pounds, would there- 

 fore contain 2,000 times .293 lb. or 58G pounds. For the moment con- 

 sidering the other nutrients of no value and supposing the price per 

 ton, 128.50 to be predicated solely upon the protein, we divide the |28.50 

 by 586 and find the cost of one pound of protein to be $.0486. Making 

 similar computations for each of the grain feeds and the by products, 

 the following table results. 



Cost of a pound of protein in the grain feeds at the prices assumed. 



In linseed meal, o. p |.0486 



In wheat bran 065 



In wheat middlings 0664 



In gluten meal 0465 



In buckwheat middlings 0568 



In malt sprouts 047 



In cottonseed meal 0349 



In oats 108 



Under tlie conditions imi)osed, and at the prices named, it is evident 

 that of the feeding stuffs offered the cottonseed meal furnishes the. 



