46 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VII., A. 1905 



Group 1, on bran and oats equal parts, seemed to like their ration and did very 

 well on it during the 40 days, making a gain of 7 lbs. each in that time. This is a meal 

 mixture that may safely be fed by any owner of heavy horses, as they are practically 

 certain to do well on it. It is much better adapted for feeding with timothy hay than 

 is a ration of pure oats. Where bran was valued at $16 per ton and ground oats at 

 $24, there would be a saving of $8.76 in the cost of feeding a horse for one year as 

 compared with feeding pure oats. 



Group 2, on bran 1 part and oats 2 parts, did very well on their ration and seemed 

 to relish it. 



Group 3, on bran 2 parts and oats 1 part, seemed fond of the meal mixture, but 

 did not like the oat hay and consequently lost somewhat in weight. When timothy 

 hay was substituted for the oat hay, however, this group came up in weight and did 

 as well as any of the others. This mixture may be recommended as a good meal ration 

 for working horses and is certainly very economical in comparison with pure oats, 

 since there would be a saving of $19.53 in the year by feeding such a ration instead of 

 an equal weight of pure oats. 



Group 4, on pure oats did very well. Their ration, however, while not any heavier 

 than that of several other groups cost 30*65 cents for the day or 2 cents more than 

 the next most expensive. 



Group 5, on oil meal 1 part, and oats 10 parts, seemed to enjoy their food but 

 succeeded in losing 34 lbs. each in weight. Oil meal is usually found to give very 

 good results and even in this case seemed to help keep the horses in good health and 

 spirits. The price was against it, however, as it was found to have raised the cost of 

 the ration slightly above what it would have been had pure oats been fed. 



Group 6, on bran 2 parts, oil meal 1 part, and oats 10 parts, would be considered 

 by most horsemen as being an ideal ration. They liked the meal very much but did 

 not care for the oat hay. As soon as put on timothy hay they started to recover 

 in weight very rapidly. Even though bran constituted such a small portion of the 

 ration it more than overcame the extra cost of the oil meal and there was a slight 

 saving over what would have been the cost had pure oats been fed, viz. : $2.92 in one 

 year. 



All the horses were on general farm work. Sometimes one team would for a few 

 days be put at harder work than the others but things were fairly equal. 



The oat hay had been cut a little on the ripe side and was not very palatable. 

 A glance at the following table will show how the groups were affected by the change 

 to timothy hay. 



BRAX FEEDING EXPERIMENT — TIMOTHY HAY. 



