204 CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



in the second place, there is the relative price of the ingredients 

 when bought separately, or the relative prices of feeding stuffs 

 in which one or other of the ingredients greatly predominate. 

 When the rough fodder, which forms the great bulk of an 

 animal's food, is rich in carbohydrates, the kind of concentrated 

 fodder which a farmer wants is one rich in albumen ; when it is 

 deficient in oil he wants a bye-fodder rich in that ingredient, 

 and the scarcity of an ingredient in rough fodder enhances its 

 value in bye-fodders. The rough fodder of cattle is usually rich 

 in carbohydrates and poor in albumen and oil. Considerations 

 such as these influence one in fixing a fair ratio for the value 

 of the albuminoids, oil, and carbohydrates in feeding stuffs, and 

 the ratio of 5:5:1, which has been for some time in use on the 

 Continent, seems a reasonable one for that purpose. 



A comparison of the units got in that way will show what are 

 the relative prices paid for the constituents of the various feed- 

 ing stuffs. It will be seen that linseed cake, which is the 

 favourite feeding stuff, is rather a dear one. The valuable in- 

 gredients contained in it cost half as much again as those in 

 decorticated cotton cake, rape cake, and Paisley meal. Owing to 

 the abundance of carbohydrates in Indian corn and locust bean 

 meal, the unit values of the albumen and oil in these substances 

 compare very unfavourably with those in the other kinds of con- 

 centrated fodder. It may be that these substances are made to 

 compare rather unfairly with the others, and that the carbo- 

 hydrates, which are the principal ingredients in these fodders, are 

 somewhat undervalued. The relative feeding value, as well as 

 the manurial value of the various kinds of feeding stuffs, are 

 matters which must be decided by experiment ; and it would 

 be of great benefit to agriculture if a series of experiments were 

 carried out on various farms to provide data which would lead 

 to accurate views on that subject. 



The mere making of an experiment, and keeping an accurate 

 record of it, is in itself an interesting and valuable exercise ; 

 but when any line of investigation is simultaneously adopted 

 by a number of experimenters the united records of such 

 observations supply a body of fact which would do much to 

 promote the progress of agricultural science. If a number of 

 comparative experiments were made with a series of bye-fodders 

 on various classes of stock and in various parts of the country, 

 and if accurate notes were kept of the progress of the stock under 

 the different systems of feeding, we would have no difficulty in 

 classifying such substances as are contained in the above table, 

 and in valuing their ingredients, and we should soon acquire a 

 sound knowledge of the circumstances most appropriate for the 

 use of each. 



