THE HAY-FIELD AXD ENGLISH HAY. 185 



We have learned to improve its good services by supple- 

 menting it in various ways and for different purposes, and 

 we are now engaged, on account of its high market price, to 

 substitute it in part or in the whole by some other cheaper, 

 suitable, coarse fodder article. A short description of a 

 series of personal observations in that direction forms the 

 closing chapter of this paper. 



A rational attempt of compounding fodder rations for 

 different kinds and different conditions of farm live-stock 

 has to begin with a due consideration of the general adapta- 

 tion of the various fodder articles for the designed purpose. 

 We have to discriminate in this connection in our choice 

 with reference to the particular kind, age and function of the 

 animal concerned. 



My experiments, below related, were carried on with 

 milch cows. The special fitness of an animal diet de})ends 

 on certain physical characteristics of the feed, whether 

 liquid or dry, coarse and bulky or fine, and on its nutritive 

 effect ; the more adapted in both directions the more satis- 

 factory are the results as fiir as health and function of the 

 animal are concerned. 



To meet the craving of the animal for food, and to support 

 a vigorous manifestation of life, are two distinctly ditlerent 

 requirements of a food. The bulky condition of the feed 

 tends to satisfy the craving or the hunger of the animal ; 

 the amount and relative proportion of digestible essential 

 food constituents required for a healthy and normal perform- 

 ance of all animal functions decides the nutritive value of 

 the feed, — its feeding effect. 



A judicious selection from among the various suitable 

 fodder articles with reference to net cost controls the degree 

 of financial success of the operation. 



Our observations at the Experiment Station have been 

 thus far confined to a trial with English hay, as compared 

 with corn fodder, corn ensilage, stover, and root crops 

 (Lane's sugar beet and carrots), and a second trial, as com- 

 pared with some green crops, as vetch and oats, Southern 

 cow pea, and serradella. 



These coarse and bulky fodder substances were supplemented 

 by corn meal, wheat bran, rye middlings and gluten meal. 



