232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



illustration, the fish ration : it gave better growth than the 

 hay to the lot by its side. The fish and corn-meal in this 

 ration cost thirteen cents. If we subtract this cost from the 

 cost of the Timothy to lot 1, or forty-three cents, we have 

 thirty cents ; or it seems that twenty-six pounds of straw, 

 then, did better business with the fish, and netted thirty 

 cents, as a substitute for hay. In many trials with clover 

 and oat-straw, I have universally got as good results from 

 clover and straw combined as from Timothy alone : in other 

 words, either straw is worth as much as hay in the ration, 

 or clover is a better food than hay. The real truth of the 

 matter is, both foods are worth very much more when fed 

 together than either would be fed alone : at least, such has 

 been the case with us at the College Farm. They are foods 

 complementary to each other ; and each prevents the waste 

 of certain materials in the other, if it were fed alone. Clover 

 is rich in albuminoids, and less so in carbohydrates than 

 straw ; while straw is poor in albuminoids. 



Millions are annually wasted in New England from the 

 hasty acceptance of palatableness as a measure of food- 

 values. The figures given illustrate this. In 1880 lot 1 ate 

 forty-three pounds of Timothy, and made a gain ; while lot 

 2 ate but twenty-two pounds and eight-tenths straw, and 

 returned a loss. This is no evidence that straw is good for 

 nothing as a food, but is evidence that twenty-two pounds 

 and eight-tenths of straw is not worth as much as forty- 

 three pounds of hay. 



From what has already been said, it will be seen that two 

 steers, weighing seventeen hundred pounds, eat thirty pounds 

 of hay daily for mere maintenance ; and, had lot No. 1 received 

 but twenty-two pounds and eight-tenths of hay, they, too, 

 would have lost weight. But would that have been an evi- 

 dence that hay is good for nothing but bedding ? The truth 

 is, that oat-straw, swale-hay, and like foods, have been sadly 

 under-estimated, not merely because of their deficiency in 

 albuminoids, nor because of indigestibility, so much as from 

 the fact that they are unpalatable, and hence not eaten in 

 amounts sufficient for growth. Whenever, by skill, the feeder 

 gets them eaten, they each of them, to the extent eaten, become 

 nearly as valuable as Timothy-ha}^ This same mistake in 

 regard to palatableness has led us into other mistakes equally 



