168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



insf farm stock, and it cannot otherwise but exert a con- 

 trolling influence on the market price of our home-raised 

 fodder crops, the hay croj) included, rendering a remunera- 

 tive production of it more difficult. 



3. Inquiries into the circumstances which control animal 

 nutrition have given us a more rational basis for the recog- 

 nition of what constitutes a com[)lctc food for various kinds 

 of farm stock, as well as under dificrcnt conditions. 



The former practice of ascribing to each of our fodder 

 articles one definite numerical nutritive value, taking the 

 hay as the standard crop, has been proved to rest on a 

 misconception of what constitutes a complete nutritious 

 food under various circumstances. 



We have learned from actual trials, that a complete ani- 

 mal diet ought to contain a certain propoition of three 

 distinctly different groups of compounds, namel^s certain 

 orofanic nitroirenous and non-nitrogenous constituents, and 

 certain saline or mineral substances. 



The entire absence of one or the other of these groups in 

 a food renders it unfit for the support of any of our farm 

 animals ; the latter die in a short time, with the symptoms of 

 starvation, if exclusively fed with a food of that kind. 

 An excess of one or the other groups of essential food 

 constituents in a daily diet is ejected as worthless for the 

 support of the life of the animal; and it may, if consumed 

 in exceptionally large quantities, endanger life. Considera- 

 tions of health and good economy advise us to feed our ani- 

 mals with reference to their special wants under different 

 circumstances and for different purposes. 



Good economy in stock feeding requires that the daily 

 diet in every case should contain the largest amount of each 

 of the three above stated groups of food constituents, which 

 the animal under treatment is capable of assimilating ; and 

 that this circumstance should be complied with at the lowest 

 attainable cost. 



As no single fodder article has been found to meet these 

 requirements equally satisfactorily under varying circum- 

 stances, as far as different kinds of animals, their age and 

 functions are concerned, it becomes, as a rule, necessary to 

 supplement every one of our fodder plants with one or more 



