114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



animal, since this extra albuminous material is a rank poison 

 if not eliminated from the body. 



So far for the theoretical principles of feeding. Now, 

 turning to the practical, we find that in market the flesh- 

 producing part of the food costs more per pound than the 

 heat-producing. We want, then, to feed as little as possible 

 of the flesh-producing, and as much as possible of the heat- 

 producing ; we want to strike the balance where we can get 

 the most production for the least money. We should 

 endeavor to get as much as possible from what we feed, 

 and at the same time to feed what is cheapest. These two 

 desires work in opposite directions, and, as just said, the 

 aim should be to strike the most profitable balance between 

 them. 



Most of the crops raised on our farms are deficient in the 

 flesh-producing material. Clover, peas and oats cut green 

 and early, barley in the head, Hungarian in blossom, rye 

 just before heading, and pasture grass, are about the only 

 things raised on the farm which have this ratio of one to five 

 and one-half. The cheap foods, such as hay, corn fodder, 

 straw, ensilage, etc., are all too wide. It is the funda- 

 mental principle of cheap feeding to raise as much as possible 

 of the fodder upon the farm. Hence the farmers should en- 

 deavor to largely increase the amount produced of the 

 articles just mentioned, as being in themselves correctly 

 proportional. This is especially true of clover, which 

 ought to be one of the foundations of New England dairy 

 farming. Enough attention has not been paid to peas and 

 oats as profitable farm crops, whether cut and made into 

 hay, or put into the silo. 



In any system of farming the huYk of the material raised 

 will have too wide a proportion of its parts, hence Avhatever 

 feeding stuff's the farmer buys should be of the opposite 

 kind, that is, of a narrow ratio. When our farmers find 

 themselves in need of grain to help out and balance up the 

 supply of hay and other coarse fodder that has been raised 

 upon the farm, the chances are that when they go to the mill 

 or the feed store, the first grain they call for will be corn. 

 But corn has just as wide a ratio as hay, and instead of 

 helping the difficulty they have only added to it. It is true 



