EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 279 



To quote again from Kuhn's article: " To feed an animal highly during 

 the most productive part of lactation pays well, but to feed the entire 

 herd equally well, without regard to individual production, can prove 

 remunerative only when in addition to yielding milk the cows are to 

 be fattened. Otherwise such feeding results in a great waste of food, 

 is not infrequently the cause of the low profits in dairying and makes 

 the barn yard manure expensive." 



Recognizing the just limitations of the application of the feeding 

 standard the daily ration of 23.57 pounds of dry matter 2.06 pounds 

 of digestible protein 12.50 pounds of digestible carbohydrates and .89 

 pounds of digestible fat is suggested by the College herd, for cows in 

 the third and fourth month of the period of lactation giving a good 

 full yield of milk and butter. A knowledge of the feeding standard and 

 the methods of computing rations is by no means all that there is of 

 skillful cow feeding. That art is one which cannot be acquired without 

 long experience in the stable, and one which involves the exercise of 

 well trained powers of observation and, above all, well ripened judgment. 



It is evident that the standard ration takes no cognizance of the 

 relative money values of the various feeding stuffs. The practical 

 feeder has to approach the question of what shall constitute his ration 

 very largely from that side. He considers primarily not what combina- 

 tions of food will cause his herd to vield the most butter, but what 

 combinations he can bring together most economically, and by what 

 combinations his cows will return the most net profit from the mate- 

 rials which his farm produces. This fact has been sufficiently illustrated 

 in the preceding section of the bulletin relating to the computation of 

 rations. 



The standard ration fails to recognize the peculiarities of different 

 feeding stuffs in the matter of their specific effects upon the quality of 

 the butter produced or upon the health and condition of the cow. Some 

 fodders, though showing a very high content of digestible nutrients, are 

 nearly worthless because cows do not like them or because they seri- 

 ously impair the quality of the products. It is not enough, therefore, 

 to report the relation 'between the quantity of butter produced and the 

 quantity of food consumed, when new forage plants are under discus- 

 sion, the quality of the products and the relation of the material to 

 the appetite of the cow must also be given, to round out and complete 

 the proper history of the experiment. A discussion of some of the 

 peculiarities of a few of the feeding stuffs used at the Station there- 

 fore naturallv follows: 



