510 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



From all points of view, then, animal husbandry is a most im- 

 portant factor in our agriculture. Into the many exceedingly in- 

 teresting and important questions regarding the breeding of farm 

 animals I shall not enter at this time, both from lack of time and 

 lack of qualification. The other half of the subject, that of the 

 economic feeding of these animals, however, is certainly of at least 

 equal importance with that of their breeding. 



The experiment stations of the United States have not failed to 

 recognize the importance of this branch of agriculture. The sta- 

 tion literature of the last twenty years presents an imposing array 

 of bulletins and articles treating of all phases of stock feeding. 

 From a cursory survey we should be led to suppose that our knowl- 

 edge of the subject was making rapid advances. A closer examina- 

 tion, however, will cause some modification of this first impression. 

 In a paper read before the Graduate Summer School of Agriculture 

 last July, Director Jordan presented a classified list of the subjects 

 of the bulletins upon stock feeding issued by the stations for the 

 years 1903, 1904, and 1905, which shows some rather startling facts. 

 Out of a total of eighty-four bulletins, forty-three were reports upon 

 comparative tests of either single feeds or individual rations. This 

 form of feeding experiment has been almost as great a favorite as its 

 analogue, the variety test, and the results have scarcely been more 

 profitable in the one case than in the other. A reasonably diligent 

 compiler could readily accumulate a great volume of data derived 

 from such comparisons, but I think it very doubtful whether tlic 

 results reached would be worth the labor. I venture to question 

 whether stock feeders in general have derived very much real per- 

 manent profit from this class of experimental work. 



Next most numerous on Jordan's list are the experiments, seven in 

 number, upon the adaptability of certain feeds to special animals or 

 purposes, a work most useful with new feeds, and yet a work demand- 

 ing scarcely more appliances or attention than could be given it by 

 a good practical feeder. FolloAving these come, in equal numbers, 

 experiments upon the substitution of home-grown for conunercial 

 feeds, and determinations of digestibility — both classes represented 

 by five bulletins. The class first named — substitution experiments — 

 are of undoubted economic value, but are necessarily of more or less 

 local applicability. As regards digestion. experiments, I shall have 

 occasion to speak later. 



Not to prolong this enumeration, I think it is not doing injustice 

 to the American stations, whether we judge by the record of these 

 three years or by our general knowledge of their woi'k, to say that 

 while their investigations have brought to light or demonstrated to 

 the farmer many useful facts, local or otherwise, they have serv-ed 

 only to a very subordinate degree to reveal principles. The latter 



