589 



In another experiment twelve cockerels and twelve capons were fed for 

 fattening. 



The fowls were ligbt Bralimas, Plymouth Rocts, and Buff Cochins, and they were 

 fed a mixture of linseed meal, bran, and ground oats; also corn meal, oats, corn on 

 the cob, and meat scraps. * » » 



Tiie full value of tlie experiment as a comparison between the pens wjis destroyed 

 by the fact that tlirough delay in obtaining instiumeuls the oi)oration of caponiziug 

 was postponed too long for the best results, and, also, several "slips" were included 

 in tlic pen of capons, wliicli was not known until the fowls were Ivilled. The results 

 are of value, however, in connection with those from the pens of laying fowls. Both 

 pens gained in weight during the first two months, and during the third month the 

 capons gained but little, while the cockerels lost in weight. Both continually lost 

 weight after the tliird month, although the amount of food consumed was not less. 



Tlio aiiioiinf of water-free food consumed per ounce of gain in live 

 woi.ulit daring tbe first li raontlis was with the capons, 10.4 ounces, and 

 with tlie crckerels, 12.3 ounces. " The a\ erage weight of water free 

 food required by the twenty-four cockerels and capons for 1 ounce of 

 gain was 11. .'35 ounces, and for the thirty-two pullets during the same 

 period (in the previous experiment), 9.36 ounces. 



"The manure collected from the roost platform of pen 5 was at the 

 average rate of 4'2.8 pounds a year per fowl, and contained 63.9 i)er cent 

 of moisture; and from pen 8 was at the late of 43.6 pounds a year, con- 

 taining (ji) per cent of moisture." The manure from the fattening fowls 

 was more valuable than that from those which were laying, due mostly 

 to the larger content of nitrogen. 



Fonltry house, bull stalls, and piggery. — A description of a poultry 

 house built during the year, and of alterations made in the station barn 

 to provide bull stalls and a piggery. 



Sorghum. — Tabulated notes on 82 varieties of sorghum and 2 of mil- 

 lot, including determinations of the sugar content of several varieties 

 of the sorghum. 



Keport of chemist, E. F. Ladd (pp. 71-214). 



Annly.scs of foods. — Analyses are given of alfalfa, mixed meadow- 

 gras.ses, oat and pea forage, fodder, corn (kernels, tops, butts, leaves, 

 and silage), beets, turnips, hay, corn meal, crushed oats, wheat bran, 

 wheat middlings, rye bi^an, buckwheat hulls, cottonseed meal, ground 

 feed, "gluten," palm nut meal, palm-nut cake, gluten meal, pea-nuts, 

 ])ea-nut meal, pea nut vine, pea-nut hulls, and meat scrap; and deter- 

 minations of albuminoid and amide nitrogen, and of the sugar and 

 starch in a large number of the above materials. 



In maize, with Biirrill and Whitman corn cut when in milk and King Philip corn at 

 maturity, all cut for forage, we find the invert sugar ranging from 4.(50 to 1:5.16 per 

 cent, sucrose from 2.40 to 10.32, and starch from 11.40 to 43.13 per cent. Can the 

 nitrogen-free extract of these foods have like nutritive value ? Differences, such as I 

 have just indicated, though less marked, are fourd in hay, grains, and waste prod- 

 ucts. 



