54 



The soutlieru dairyman incurs considerable ex- 

 pense in the purchase of wheat bran. The experimen- 

 tal feeding of dairy cows during the past two winters 

 has had for its object to learn whether the dairyman 

 could advantageously reduce the amount of wheat bran 

 often fed. Instead of wheat bran, we fed in 1901-2 

 vetch hay and the past winter cowpea hay. In com- 

 position these two hays are quite similar to wheat bran, 

 as may be seen in the table of composition below, giving 

 the composition of the foods used as determined by the 

 Chemical Department of this station. 



*Starchy matter, etc. **Vetoh. hay, when analyzed, (Ala. Bui. Nq. 

 105), contained more water than when fed. 



In each experiment six thoroughbred Jersey cows 

 have been employed, carefully divided into two nearly 

 similar lots. Each lot has been fed (in addition to a 

 basal ration which was the same for all) for half of the 

 time on wheat bran and during the other portion of the 

 experiment on either vetch or cowpea hay instead. The 

 effort has been to make each lot of cows consume as 

 nearly as practicable as many pounds of wheat bran 

 during one period as of hay during the other period of 

 each experiment. In other words hay of hairy vetch 

 or of cowpea has been substituted almost pound for 



