EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. III. ISSUED MARCH, 1892. No. 8. 



EDITORIAL XOTES. 



Ou pages 557-576 of the present number of tlie Record an account 

 is given of several series of experiments, tlie practical details of wliicli 

 were carried out by farmers in a number of places in the Province of 

 Saxony, Prussia. They were under the direction of the experiment sta- 

 tion of the Central Agricultural Society of the Province, which is located 

 at Halle, the seat of one of the large German universities. The farmers 

 of this region were in doubt as to the best ways of using certain feed- 

 ing stufts, such as the diffusion residue of sugar beets, of which they 

 had large quantities, and concentrated foods, like oil cake and barley 

 meal, which they were in the habit of buying in large amounts for feed- 

 ing to milch cows and fattening oxen and sheep. The object of the 

 experiments was to get light on the questions of the best ways of 

 utilizing the feeding stuffs, and the kinds and quantities which might 

 be most advantageously fed for making milk and meat. 



The supply of each kind of conceutrated food, such as oil cake or bar- 

 ley meal, for a group of comparative trials, was bought from one source 

 and distributed to the individual experimenters, and thus all had like 

 materials. For the home-grown products — hay, straw, etc. — each one set 

 aside enough at the outset for the wliole experiment. The station 

 analyzed samj)les of the feeding stuffs and made tests of their digesti- 

 bility. On the basis of these estimates the rations were made up and 

 fed. The station also made analyses of the milk ; and with a view to 

 obtaining more definite knowledge of the structure of the bodies of the 

 fattened animals, composition of the organs, and quality of the meat, 

 arrangements were provided for slaughtering the animals under such 

 conditions that this part of the investigation could be properly carried 

 out by the station. The financial estimates were made from accounts 

 kept in accordance with a system devised by the professor of agricultural 

 bookkeeping of the Agricultural Institute of the University of Leipsic, 

 under whose superintendence the bookkeeping of a number of farms 

 in the region is done. The princii)les of chemistry and physiology and the 

 professional skill of the veterinarian and the technologist were utilized 



507 



