350 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



eiit periods. The author admits that the rations are wide but defends 

 this on the ground that " so are those of most . . . farmers who 

 feed what they grow. We must feed as other farmers feed, or as they 

 can couveniently feed, otherwise we suggest nothing to them." There 

 could not well he a greater fallacy or one more detrimental to the 

 greatest usefulness of the experiment stations. A science can not 

 be developed by following common j)ractice. The exi)eriments made 

 sliould embody in i)laii the best scientific knowledge of the time. An 

 experiment may have a practical ai)i)lication without being (tarried out 

 along practical lines, and if the conclusions arrived at have been 

 obtained in a thorough scientific manner there is added safety in recom- 

 mending them in practice. Is the effect on the milk of the coarse fod- 

 ders tested more apparent or conclusive when they are fed ia such 

 out-of-balance rations'? On the contrary, it is probably less so. Instead 

 of i)erpetuating and encouraging a bad practice by recognizing and 

 following it the station should try to improve it by example and 

 teachings. 



Recently two stations have studied the rations fed to cows by prac- 

 tical dairymen. The methods of work followed have been quite differ- 

 ent, as has also the application of the results. 



In the first case the attempt was made to tabulate the practice of 

 diiirymen in diflerent parts of the country with a view to fixing a feed- 

 ing standard for dairy cows. The data as to the amounts and kinds of 

 food fed were solicited by a circular letter, and from the returns the 

 amounts of digestible nutrients were calculated from average figures 

 for composition and digestibility. In this way 128 rations were col- 

 lected from 24 States and Canada, and these are averaged, giving what 

 is termed the "American standard ration for dairy cow^s." This " stand- 

 ard" is recommended to American dairymen as being "the result of 

 American feeding experience;" and the author is confident "that in 

 the large majority of cases its adoption will give satisfactory results, 

 and that it is preferable to the German standard ration so long placed 

 before our stock feeders as the ideal one. " 



The average ration arrived at in the above manner lepresents merely 

 the average practice of the correspondents filling out the blanks, noth- 

 ing more. It does not represent the average practice in the United 

 States even, for far more data would be needed than has yet been col- 

 lected to calculate the average practice of successful dairymen in tins 

 country with anything like certainty. Even then the result would be 

 only an arercu/c, not a standard, A feeding standard is an expression 

 of the amount and proportion of the several nutrients best adapted to 

 the purpose for which the animal is kept, as determined by continued 

 and systematic feeding experiments conducted on scientific principles. 

 Its value depends upon the extent and accuracy of the observations 

 on which it is based. A feeding standard can not be established by a 

 study of feeding practice, hv the first place there are serious ditticul- 



