154 Bulletin 154. 



This ration corresponds very closely to the standard and 

 while the purchase of the cotton-seed meal will add somewhat to 

 the expense still it is the experience of careful feeders that the 

 increased production will abundantly pay for thus securing a 

 proper balance to the ration. 



The same result may be obtained by using other feeding stufTs 

 having a narrow nutritive ratio. The question is likely to be 

 raised, which of the various feeding stuffs offered in the market 

 may most economically be used in supplementing the home 

 grown foods to produce a balanced ration ? This question is 

 best answered b}' formulating properly balanced rations containing 

 each of the foods under consideration, and by assigning the 

 actual market value per pound to each of the constituents of the 

 ration, its cost is readily ascertained and the cheapest may be 

 selected. 



A second edition of Bulletin 154 has become necessary by 

 reason of the great demand for it which has been made by others 

 than those who are regularly on our mailing list. Many of the 

 letters received indicate that the value of the bulletin might be 

 increased if a table giving the water, ash, nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid and potash were appended, of the feeds mentioned in the 

 bulletin. The mineral constituents in the following table have 

 been compiled from " The Fertility of the Land." The amounts 

 given, of water, ash, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, are 

 for one thousand pounds of feeds. To determine the amounts 

 in one hundred pounds, move the decimal point one place to the 

 left. The right hand column gives the estimated values of one 

 ton ; nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash being values at 

 fourteen, four and one-half, and four and one-half cents per 

 pound respectively. 



When the feeds enumerated in the following table are fed to 

 miscellaneous classes of animals, fully one-half of the valuable fer- 

 tilizing constituents in the rations are found in the solid and liquid 

 excrements. Non-producing and fattening animals retain com- 

 paratively' small amounts, and young animals and cows in milk 

 comparatively large amounts of the three valuable manurial 

 elements contained in the rations consumed. 



It is true that the three elements of chief value in manures 



