CATTLE-FEEDING EXPERIMENTS 223 



concentrated part of ration in the third month is very 

 high in fibre (19-6 per cent), and would, no doubt, 

 have given much worse results if the roots had not been 

 fed so liberally. 



There does not appear to be any advantage in 

 using highly concentrated foods during the whole of 

 the fattening period, for in Mr Bruce's report (1903-4) 

 the bullocks receiving " decorticated " cotton cake 

 cost 33. more per cwt. of live weight increase to produce 

 than was the case with those receiving Bombay cotton 

 cake at first. In each case the ration was partly sub- 

 stituted later on with linseed cake. Further, the bullocks 

 fed on the very rich concentrates (decorticated cotton 

 cake and linseed cake) gave an increase of 62 Ibs. live 

 weight on the average per head during the last two 

 months of fattening ; while those receiving Bombay 

 cotton cake with some linseed cake later on, gave 1 10 

 Ibs. live weight increase in the same time, thus 

 illustrating the principle that the concentrated part of 

 the ration should gradually improve in quality as the 

 fattening period advances. 



The Edinburgh College experiments (Mr Bruce's 

 reports, 1906) also shed light on the effect of feeding 

 moderate as well as liberal amounts of concentrated foods. 

 E.g., when the bullocks were given an average daily allow- 

 ance of 90 Ibs. roots, with straw ad lib., the average 

 daily gain in live weight with those receiving on an 

 average 6 Ibs. Bombay cotton cake per day, was 1-78 

 Ibs. ; while with those bullocks getting 8 Ibs. Bombay 

 cotton cake per day, the daily increase in live weight 

 averaged 2-02 Ibs. per head per day. The bullocks 

 receiving the heavier ration of cake (8 Ibs. per day) 

 were fat a fortnight earlier than those receiving the 

 moderate ration (6 Ibs. per day). The final returns 



