BREEDS OF BEEF CATTLE 



313 



stuffs. If it were thought desirable to add variety to the ration, 

 wheat middlings would obviously be the next choice. 



It is evident, however, without going through the labor of com- 

 putation, that while corn meal and wheat middlings may be used in 

 the ration, neither will supply enough protein if used exclusively. 

 Of the available feeding stuffs which are rich in protein and which 

 may therefore serve to balance the deficiency of this ingredient, 

 gluten feed is relatively the cheapest, and cotton-seed meal comes 

 next. While the difference between the two is not great, naturally 

 it is best to try the cheaper one. It is not difficult to determine by 

 a few trials that 4 pounds of corn meal and 2 1 /2 pounds of gluten 

 feed, in addition to the coarse fodder available, will give a ration 

 corresponding very closely to the requirements, as the following 

 table shows: 



This ration shows as close an agreement with the computed 

 requirement as could be desired. The comparatively low figure for 

 dry matter indicates that more coarse fodder might have been used 

 had it been available, with the probable effect of cheapening the 

 ration. As it is, the farmer has used the feeds relatively lowest in 

 price and apparently have a very economical ration. 



Since, according to the assumed figures, corn meal is relatively 

 cheap as compared with the other feeding stuffs, the farmer should 

 naturally use as large a proportion of this in the ration as practic- 

 able. In order to increase the corn meal, however, it will plainly be 

 necessary to use some other feed richer in protein than gluten feed. 

 Cotton-seed meal is nearly as cheap as a source of energy as gluten 

 feed, while it contains almost twice as much protein. Therefore the 

 farmer should try the effect of increasing the corn meal to 4^ 

 pounds and using l 1 /^ pounds of cotton-seed meal in place of the 

 2M> pounds of gluten feed, with the following results: 



This ration agrees with the computed requirements even better 

 than the previous one, while a simple comparison shows that it is 



