230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cattle to consume a sufficiency of albuminoids than it is to 

 induce them to eat a plenitude of carbohydrates. The 

 cheap sources of carbohydrates are in unpalatable foods, 

 that will not be eaten in sufficiency. I have ventured these 

 suggestions in the belief that tables are at present working a 

 double mischief, — first, in fixing the almost exclusive atten- 

 tion of feeders upon the necessity of getting the albuminoids, 

 while the practical weakness of this ration will be found in 

 the lack of carbohydrates ; and, second, in ascribing a false 

 value to foods as found on the American market. 



The economy of food combinations in practice is the final 

 standard by which the farmer will measure the value of 

 theoretical deductions. It must not be forgotten, however, 

 that German conclusions, in many of their most important 

 phases, rest upon actual trials. 



I will state, before giving results, that they are for two- 

 year-old steers, in lots of two ; each lot of like weights and 

 ages, and, for the immediate part at least, of like feeding, and, 

 in most cases, of similar breeding. No attempt has been 

 made at high feeding for rapid growth ; the purpose being to 

 put with the common coarser foods of New England — such 

 as straw, corn-fodder, and swale-hay — such concentrated 

 foods as the markets afforded, feeding in moderate amounts, 

 as customary with farmers. These combinations have uni- 

 formly been fed against good hay. The purpose has been to 

 note the economy of the combination, the amount of each 

 of the nutrients in each ration, their comparative efficacy by 

 the side of published German results. The following state- 

 ments cover but a fraction of the trials made, and are given 

 so as to show the results with as many foods as possible. 

 When hay is repeated, it is for another set and year. More 

 lots were fed each year, but many were repetitions. The 

 facts to be given are considered sufficient to demonstrate the 

 economy of the combinations, at least for moderate growth. 

 Hay, good Timothy, cured, rated at $20 (as it is guessed that 

 for 1881-82 this price may be an average for the Massachu- 

 setts farmer) ; cotton-seed meal, $32 ; corn-meal, $30 ; bran, 

 $25 ; fish, $50 ; new-process linseed-meal, $32 ; blood, $45 ; 

 meat, $45 ; clover, $20 ; straw, $10 ; corn-fodder, $10 ; and 

 swale-hay, $10 per ton. 



