294 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



ground with the oats, in about equal weights, to make 

 "chop," which is fed with the hay. The cows will not 

 vary greatly from 1,000 pounds live weight. While these 

 cows are in full flow of milk in the spring before pasture 

 is ready, they are fed about 20 pounds of hay and 8 pounds 

 of chop per day. Turning to the table, we find that 20 

 pounds of hay, 4 pounds of oats and 4 pounds of corn 

 contain digestible nutrients as follows: 



Upon comparison of the nutrients furnished by this 

 ration with Wolff's standard, as given in the table, it is 

 discovered that, while the dry matter and total nutrients 

 are not far out of the way, the protein is much too small, 

 the carbohydrates and fat are somewhat too great, while 

 the nutritive ratio is far too wide. 



This result might readily have been foreseen had we 

 paused a moment to note the nutritive ration of each of 

 the three foods entering into the ration. They are, timothy 

 hay, 1 : 16.6; oats 1 : 6.2; corn, 1 : 9.7. Neither of them 

 is as narrow as the standard, and it is impossible to com- 

 bine them into a ration that is approximately balanced. 

 As corn is a purchased product, the natural suggestion 

 is that the corn should be replaced by some food having 

 a high proportion of protein, or, in other words, a very 



