AGRICtrLTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 273 



So long as we do not understand what hay, corn-fodder, 

 corn-meal, oil-cake, bran, shorts, brewers' grains, etc., are 

 in their distinct parts, and how their separate ingredients in- 

 dividually stand related to the wants of the living, growing, 

 laboring, milk-giving, or fattening animal, so long we shall 

 remain in a fog of discussion, so long we shall oppose each 

 other in argument, in belief and in practice ; so long, like 

 men bewildered in the forest, we shall travel in a circle, and 

 tire ourselves out without making progress forward. 



In the tables which I have alluded to, in which a vast 

 amount of the work of the experiment stations has been con- 

 densed to its results, in compact numerical statement, we 

 find given the average quantities of water, albuminoids, car- 

 bohydrates, fat and cellulose, that are contained in 1,000 

 parts of each of some 200 kinds of forage and feeding stuff. 

 Chemical analysis encounters extraordinary difficulties in its 

 attempt to set forth the separate elements of food. Many of 

 these difficulties are as yet but partially overcome, and many 

 of our results are in some measure merely tentative and pro- 

 visional ; but a vast advance has been surely accomplished. 



We can compare together hay and cornstalks, oats and 

 corn-meal, peas and oil-cake, potatoes and turnips, by a com- 

 parison of their water, their albuminoids, their carbohydrates, 

 their fat, and their fibre. We can also connect the pre- 

 ponderance of one or other class of ingredients with their 

 observed use in cattle feeding. 



The Experiment Stations have carried out a large number 

 of feeding trials on oxen, cows, calves, horses, sheep, swine, 

 and goats, taking account of the accurately weighed and 

 analyzed food, not merely as so much hay, beets, etc., but 

 also as so much water, fat, starch, gluten, etc. ; and have 

 thus given a new, more definite and more general expression 

 to the results which practice had obtained. 



As in the construction of a house, the builder must know 

 not only the materials to be provided, but also the due pro- 

 portions of them to be employed, so in the raising of a calf, 

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