416 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ox is at hard work, the addition of straw to his ration of hay will be no benefit, 

 because the hay contains less albuminoids than the working ox needs, and the 

 addition of material still poorer in albuminoids will not help matters. He 

 needs a material richer in albuminoids than the hay, and hence the benefit 

 from the use of grain. By the use of materials very rich in albuminoids the 

 straw may be made as useful for feeding purposes as the costly hay. When I 

 was a boy I saw my brother feed corn to the stock which had nothing but 

 straw to eat, and I asked the reason : "Because it gives them heart." It does 

 not give cattle heart in the literal sense, but it serves to fill the heart with good, 

 healtliy blood, which is just as important. 



But what I want to call to your especial attention is the great value of bran, 

 shorts and middlings for feeding purposes. Look at tlie large amount of albu- 

 minoids which they contain ; look at these cheap mill products, and then at 

 the cheap straw which so often goes to waste, and see how admirably these 

 materials are fitted to each other in stock-feeding, especially of store animals. 

 The straw-stacks which yearly rot down in our fields are a disgrace to our agri- 

 culture ; yet it is nearly useless to try to crowd it down the throats of our ani- 

 mals without the addition of some form of albuminoids in the form of mill- 

 stuff or oil cake, by which they shall be able to digest the coarse materials and 

 -appropriate all their nutritive elements. The subject which will bear profitable 

 study is how to combine our coarse and cheap farm products with some form 

 of albuminoids, and tlius secure the more perfect digestion of both classes of 

 minimal food. In this way we may " make one hand wash the other" in stock 

 feeding. The results will be manifest in a better condition of our stock, but 

 still more in the increased quantity and better quality of farm-yard manure ; 

 and the dung-heap, after all, is the pivot on which turns succcssfal farming. 



State Agricultural College, January 21, 1879. 



DISCUSSION at DOWAGIAC. 



Some one asked Dr. Kedzie whether he had any experience with '' oil corn " 

 at the College. 



Dr. Kedzie. — I once planted some of it, produced a heavy growth of stalks, 

 but the ears were small and imperfect. I do not think it can be raised success- 

 fully in Michigan. 



Capt. Hendricks. — A neighbor of mine mixes meal and bran in equal parts, 

 and claims that it is better than an equal weight of meal. I liave often noticed 

 that animals fed plenty of good hay will eat straw eagerly when turned out of 

 their stalls. 



Hon. J. J. Woodman said he agreed entirely with Dr. Kedzie in regard to 

 the benefit of mixing food in stock-feeding. He said that the analysis that had 

 been made by the doctor during the last two years had been of great value to 

 the farmers. 



The following correspondence between Mr. Henry Shultes and Dr. Kedzie 

 is here publislied as a part of the discussion on the foregoing lecture: 



THE USE OF STRAW. 



To Prof. li. C. Kedzie, Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich.: 



At the Baj"- City Farmer's Institute you are reported in tlie Post and Tribune as 

 sayiiij; tliat " the best and surest way to decompose straw is with a match." Many of 

 the farmers of this township have on their farms the straw of from 1,000 to 3,500 

 busliels of wheat, and the best way of disposing of it is, in many cases, quite an im- 

 portant question. Wa all understand very well that the easiest way of disposing of 

 a straw btack is to apply a match. Whether it is tiie best way or not, is the question. 



