CHAPTER XVI 

 THE VALUATION OF FEEDING-STUFFS 



IT seems to be very generally supposed that it is 

 possible to state fixed relative money values for feed- 

 ing-stuffs, and that by comparing these with market 

 prices the relation of value to cost may be ascertained. 

 Such a state of knowledge is certainly much to be de- 

 sired, for it would be of great practical use to feeders. 

 For various reasons, however, it is not yet attained, 

 and there is little present prospect that it will be. The 

 establishment of such relative values for cattle foods, 

 as a whole and for general use, is a much more complex 

 matter than many suppose it to be, for it touches on one 

 side some of the most profound problems of physiolog- 

 ical chemistry, concerning which we have only partial 

 knowledge. 



377. Basis of assigning values to feeding-stuffs. 

 The problem of assigning values to the classes of nutrients 

 in feeding-stuffs may be approached from two directions, 

 viz., from the commercial side and from the physiolog- 

 ical side. In the first case, the effort would be to calcu- 

 late on the basis of the prices of standard commercial 

 feeds what is the actual pound-cost of each of the classes 

 of nutrients, and thus have a means of ascertaining 

 whether a particular feed is selling for less or more than 

 the existing market conditions warrant. In the second 

 case, the attempt would be to determine the relative 

 physiological importance of digestible protein, carbo- 



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