414 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



borne in the case of the cheap carbonaceous fodders, but the farmer cannot 

 afford to tlirow the costly albuminoids to the dung-heap. One of the prob- 

 lems ill stock-feeding wliich requires skill and judg'.nent in its solution is to so 

 apportion these two classes of food to each other as to secure the assimilation 

 of their digestible portions, and to adjust the supply of each to the \yants of 

 the animal. "We may thus .'^ccure complete digestion of food and satisfy the 

 wants of an animal in the condition in which it is placed, whether in store, at 

 work, giving milk, or fitting for the shambles. 



Within the last twenty years the Germans have given careful study to the 

 chemistry of stock-feeding. In carrying out their investigations they have 

 applied very rigorous methods to determine what becomes of the food con- 

 sumed by an animal. For this purpose the food is analyzed to determine just 

 ■what it contains, and how much it contains of each class of substances, and 

 the amount of this food is accurately determined by weight. The animal him- 

 self is -weighed daily, and he is placed under such circumstances that the 

 nature and amount of the material thrown off in the breath or exhaled from 

 the skin is determined, and all the liquid and solid excretions are collected and 

 analyzed. Thus an accurate account is kept of all that passes into the body, 

 and out of the body of the animal under experiment. The daily weight of 

 the animal is the balance sheet of the account which shows whether the ani- 

 mal is gaining or losing on a given diet, and an analysis of the excretions as 

 compared -with the analysis of the food determines whether the food is all 

 digested, or if any part is not digested, what element of the food thus fails to 

 realize value in the feeding. In this way a great variety of fodders have been 

 tested, and their influence on animal nutrition determined •with a degree of 

 accuracy never before attained. The world is under great obligations to these 

 patient Germans, who, testing theory by rigid practice and bringing every 

 result to the test of the balance, have brought out facts of the utmost impor- 

 tance to the stock-feeder and farmer. Nor are these results locked up in the 

 laboratories or embalmed in scientific journals, but they are brought within 

 the comprehension of every one who can read. They are published in the 

 form of an "Agricultural Calendar" or farmer's almanac, which contains 

 analyses ofevery material used for animal food in Germany, and hundreds of 

 formulas for combinations of food materials to meet the requirements of an 

 animal in whatever condition placed. You will find a very interesting account 

 of these investigations, and of some of the results readied in a valuable series 

 of papers prepared by Prof. W. 0. Atwater of Connecticut, and published in 

 the American Agriculturist for 1875-6, entitled "Science applied to Farm- 

 ing." I shall u.-e freely the information which Prof. Atwater furnishes in 

 these excellent papers. 



The daily ration in all cases is fixed for an animal weighing 1,000 pounds 

 live weight: if the weight of the animal varies from this, the ration will vary 

 in the same proportion. 



I present some of the daily rations determined by Dr. Wolff of Ilohenheim 

 so far as the amount required of the albuminoids, carbohydrates and fat for 

 an animal weighing 1,0U0 pounds: 



