124 Thirty-Fifth Annual Report of the 



Science do,es not pretend to say the last word. It formu- 

 lates theories to discard them as new discoveries lend further 

 light. It, like practice, is ever an evolution. Hence it follows 

 that I may tell you some falsehoods to-day ; nothing that I 

 know to be such, yet, notwithstanding untruths. My state- 

 ments represent what I believe is held to be true to-day, but 

 which 20, 40 or a 100 years hence may be otherwis,e regarded. 

 This does not imply that present conceptions though perhaps 

 erroneous are useless. They may prove helpful, even if not 

 immutable. 



To cover all that science has done even in this one line, 

 were impossible. One must draw the line somewhere ; hence I 

 speak only of ''some things" which have been done "of late." 

 My talk on this account is disjointed rather than connected, and 

 suggestive instead of didactic. I shall take it for granted more- 

 over that you have a grasp upon certain of the fundamentals, 

 for a dairymen's meeting is on a higher plane than an institute. 

 It is the high school as it were of the farmer's instruction, and 

 consequently we may assume something for most of those who 

 attend its sessions. 



What are some of the points which have been developed 

 touching the feeding of dairy cows? 



1. The limitations of feeding standards are better under- 

 stood and the German standard-balanced ration protein state- 

 ment is under review. 



2. The home growing of protein is a more practicable thing, 

 thanks to soil and seed inoculation with nodule-producing organ- 

 isms. 



3. The "best" grain feed is better known. 



Professor Haecker of the Minnesota Station is emphatic 

 in his belief that we feed cows too much protein. He shows 

 several animals with good records which for years had eaten 

 only 1.5 pounds of digestible protein daily. Five years' study 

 at Burlington of the relationship of varying grain rations to 

 profit and to bovine well-being as well as a survey of work else- 

 where leads me to believe that the German balanced ration's call 

 for 2.5 pounds of digestible protein is usually an over loud cry. 

 One the other hand I am not yet ready to accept Haecker's data 

 as applicable in the East. In fact among the later dictums of 

 science is found the notion that feeding standards resemble India 

 rubber rather than cast iron, that they are helpful as guides 

 rather than as rules, and that protein is not, in the slang phrase, 

 the "whole thing." Feeding standards are differentiated into: 



