562 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the wants of our various kinds of farm stock, it becomes a 

 matter of first importance to learn how to supplement our 

 leading farm crops to meet the divers wants of each kind. 

 To secure the highest feeding value of each article of fodder 

 is most desirable in the interest of good economy. The judi- 

 cious selection of ingredients for a suitable and remunerative 

 diet for our dairy stock obliges us, therefore, to study the 

 value of the fodder articles at our disposal from both stand- 

 points-. 



The chemical analyses of the various articles used in the 

 combination of fodder in our case are stated in some suc- 

 ceeding pages to show their character and their respective 

 quality. To ascertain the chemical composition of a fodder 

 ration, in connection with an otherwise carefully managed 

 feeding experiment, enables us to recognize with more cer- 

 tainty the causes of the varying feeding effects of one and 

 the same fodder article when fed in difTorent combinations. 

 It furnishes, also, a most valuable guide in the selection of 

 suitable commercial feed stuffs from fyiown sources to supple- 

 ment economically our home-raised fodder crops. Practical 

 experience in feeding stock has so far advanced that it seems 

 to need no further argument to accept it as a matter of fact 

 that the efficiency of a fodder ration in the dairy does not 

 depend, aside from its general or special adaptation, on the 

 ,mere presence of more or less of certain prominent fodder 

 articles, but on the presence of a proper quantity and a 

 certain relative proportion of certain prominent constituents 

 of plants, which are known to be essential for a successful 

 support of life and of the special functions of the dairy cow. 



Investigations into the relations which the various promi- 

 nent constituents of plants bear to the support of animal 

 life have rendered it advisable to classify them, in this con- 

 nection, into three groups, — mineral constituents, and nitrog- 

 enous and non-nitrogenous organic constituents. For details 

 regarding this matter I have to refer to previous publications 

 of the Station. (See Fourth Annual Report, pages 31-37.) 

 Numerous and extensive practical feeding experiments with 

 most of our prominent fodder articles in various conditions, 

 and with all kinds of farm live stock, have introduced the 

 practice of reporting, in connection with the analysis of the 



