Inaccuracies of Money Valuations 271 



cally as well as practically, most absurd results were 

 obtained. 



In the first place, it is already demonstrated that 

 the money valuations are often greatly influenced by 

 the choice of feeds which shall enter into the calcula- 

 tion. Penny, in New Jersey, using cottonseed meal, 

 bran, middlings, cobmeal, corn meal, and oats, ob- 

 tained certain values for protein, carbohydrates, and 

 fats. Hill shows that if Penny had left out the cob- 

 meal the value for fat would be only half that found, 

 and the value of the protein and carbohydrates would 

 be a quarter more. Woll obtained certain pound prices 

 with a list of common feeds, but Hill shows again 

 that if Woll had left out rye bran these prices would 

 be greatly changed. It appears that varying individual 

 judgments as to the list of feeds which shall determine 

 values maj^ cause absurd differences in the calculated 

 market cost of the nutrients, and introducing into the 

 list or withdrawing from it a comparatively unim- 

 portant feeding stuff may lower or raise the price of 

 one nutrient even one -half. 



A still more serious difficulty arises from the fact 

 that often when an apparently typical and proper list 

 of feeds is used from which to calculate prices, the 

 use of the method of least squares results in giving 

 a negative value to one of the nutrients. In several 

 cases of this kind the fat was shown to be worth less 

 than nothing, a most absurd conclusion. This mathe- 

 matical method is, therefore, not available for the 

 valuation of feeding stuffs, and so far no mathema- 

 tician has offered one that is. 



