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S'J'ATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



matter eaten indicates the amount eaten as stated and not the amount fed 

 as in some oases there was quite a little waste, especially with such fod- 

 ders as corn stalks and oat straw. The results tabulated in the last col- 

 umn of the above table are important not only from a scientific but a 

 practical standpoint. These figures give the number of pounds of dry 

 matter required to produce a pound of gain. This datum is important 

 for, while the net profit on lambs in the different lots depends upon the 

 current prices of food stuffs, the dry matter required to produce a pound 

 of gain would remain substantially the same from year to year. Only 

 6.76 pounds of dry matter were required to produce a pound of gain when 

 corn stalks were used as fodder. This was the best showing made by any 

 fodder used in the experiment. On the other hand fully a pound and 

 one-half more of dry matter was necessary to produce a pound of gain in 

 those lots which were fed millet hay and oat straw. In the remaining 

 lots there was but little variation in this particular. 



Table IV. — Total protein, carbohydrates and fat. 



It is remarkable that the amount of fodder and grain fed to pro- 

 duce a pound of gain was so uniform in all the lots. In Table III it is 

 shown that the total amount of corn and roots fed to each lot was practi- 

 cally the same, so that we are safe in concluding that the differences in 

 results were due to the fodders in the ration rather than to the differences 

 in the amount of grain fed. It might be thought that the variations 

 would have been more marked had the proportion of fodder to grain been 

 greater but there was not an excessive amount of grain fed as compared with 

 the fodder, the relation existing between the two being practically what 

 the appetites of the lambs demanded and the same as it has been in pre- 

 vious years. 



