Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 177 



Not only were the average daily gains in Lot 70 receiving shelled 

 corn materially increased by the addition of linseed oil meal, but the 

 Lot (70), receiving this addition during the last two months of the 

 feeding period, made a larger gain than was made by any other ration 

 in the experiment during the same time. These results also show 

 what has been mentioned in the preceding discussion, page 301, that 

 tlie supplemented rations maintained average daily gains during the 

 closing weeks of the fattening period much more successfully than 

 corn alone. (Compare lots 71, 72 and 73.) 



Lot 70 was the only lot in five years' investigations with four 

 hundred cattle that made a larger gain during the last two months 

 of the feeding period than during the earlier months. This important 

 result is to be particularly noted, as it tends to emphasize in a marked 

 degree the effect of adding the nitrogenous supplements to an ex- 

 clusive corn ration during the closing weeks of the fattening period. 

 It also indirectly tends to confirm what has already been said that the 

 nitrogenous supplements will invariably produce higher gains than corn 

 alone in animals already in high condition. It is probably true that the 

 reason for the marked efficiency of the linseed meal during the later 

 stages of the fattening process is due to the greater palatability of the 

 ration, which induces the animal to consume considerably larger quanti- 

 ties of the rations offered. It is manifestly increasingly important to 

 consider the effect of palatability during the later stages of the fatten- 

 ing process than during the beginning, when the animals are in thin con- 

 dition. 



The conclusion seems clear from the results of these investigations 

 that it will be highly profitable to feed a limited amount of nitrogenous 

 supplements during the later stages of the feeding period to cattle that 

 have received an exclusive grain ration of corn. 



INFLUENCE OF CONDITION ON COST OF GAIN. 



If the results for the years 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906 are con- 

 sidered by themselves it will be seen that in those years there was 

 practically no difference in the amounts of grain required for one pound 

 of gain between the lots of cattle receiving the different rations. The 

 results for the year 1907 indicate that the supplemented rations require 

 considerably less grain for one pound gain than the ration of corn alone. 

 The table (2) following is arranged to show the average amount of grain 

 required to make one pound of gain for the four years, 1903, 1904, 1905 

 and 1906, as compared with the year 1907. 



A— 12 



