PROTEIN REQUIREMENTS. 127 
but that a maximum yield is secured at a minimum cost of 
food by a proper adjustment of the amount of nutriment in 
the ration to the animal’s needs for maintenance and for 
product yielded, and the bulk of the ration to its feeding 
capacity. Anexcess of nutriment in a ration does not seem 
to increase materially the flow of milk or yield of butter fat, 
but results in an increase in body weight and a relative de- 
crease in dairy products; while a diminished nutriment sup- 
ply resulted in a decreased gain in live weight and a relative 
increasein dairy products. The record for1901-2 also shows 
that when aration is short of nutriment because of excess 
bulk the cows maintained their flow at the expense of live 
weight, and that it was not because of the shortage of any 
particular component in the ration—for if such had been the 
case there would have been a decrease in the yield of milk 
because of lack of material for its production. 
