THE SELECTION OF FOODS 57 



proportionately reduced. The list will probably include all 

 varieties of green products grown upon the farm when fed 

 at a certain stage, and also certain other products when fed 

 mature. The former includes such products as soiling foods 

 of all kinds, the tops of field roots, cabbage leaves and rape ; 

 and the latter such crops as corn ensilage, field roots of all 

 kinds, cabbage heads and Kohl-rabi. 



Danish experiments conducted with a large number of 

 eows showed that feeding roots materially increased the 

 milk flow, even when concentrates were fed freely, but with 

 heavy grain feeding it was found that one pound of the 

 concentrates was equal to 10 pounds of mangels. With 

 lighter grain feeding the results would probably have been 

 more favorable to the mangels. At the New Jersey exper- 

 iment station, it was found that silage as compared with 

 corn fodder increased the milk flow by 12.8 per cent. At 

 the Maine experiment station corn silage added to a ration 

 of good hay and concentrates also materially increased the 

 milk yield. 



Variety in foods. That variety in foods will produce 

 returns more satisfactory than can be obtained frum foods 

 of similar analysis but lacking in variety when fed for long 

 periods is rendered probable in the following, and it may 

 be in other ways : ( I ) In the great variety in the products 

 which nature furnishes; (2) by analogy in the dietary of 

 the human family; (3) by the fact that animals tire sooner 

 of some foods than others, and (4) by the experience of 

 practical feeders. 



In nature's garden, the open prairie, many varieties 

 of grasses will be found on the same acre and on every acre 

 of the prairie. This provision of nature would seem to 

 have a twofold object in view. The first is to stock the 

 ground with plants, each one of which will draw sustenance 

 from the storehouse in the soil adapted to its needs. The 

 second is to furnish that variety which sustains the appe- 

 tite in animals, to the extent of leading to increase in con- 

 sumption which in turn results in increased production. In 



