1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 37 



Summary of Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows. 



(November, 1885, to May, 1889.) 

 Fodder Corn^ Corn Stover and Corn Ensilage vs. English Hay. 

 In preceding communications it will be found that some 

 years ago, November, 1885, a series of observations with milch 

 cows was inaugurated at our institution, for the purpose of 

 securing, under well-defined circumstances, information 

 needed to assist in answering the following questions : — 



1. What is the comparative feeding effect of dry fodder 

 corn, of dry corn stover, and of a good corn ensilage, when 

 used in part or in the whole as a substitute for English hay 

 (upland meadow hay) in the daily diet of milch cows, and 

 also that of a good root crop in place of corn ensilage ; the 

 amount and kind of grain feed remaining, for obvious reasons, 

 the same under otherwise corresponding circumstances ? 



2. What is the total cost, as well as the net cost of the 

 daily feed per head in case of different fodder combinations 

 used ; making in all cases alike an allowance of a loss of 

 twenty per cent, of the fertilizing constituents contained in 

 the feed consumed, in consequence of the sale of the milk? 



3. What is the commercial value, at current market 

 rates, of the manurial refuse obtainable in the case of 

 diflerent fodder combinations used as daily diet for the 

 support of cows, assuming that eighty per cent, of the value 

 of the fertilizing constituents contained in the fodder con- 

 sumed can be secured to the farm by a careful management ? 



The results of experiments carried on in this connection 

 during a number of months of the years 1885, 1886, 1887 

 and 1888, have already been described in detail in our 

 respective annual reports and periodical bulletins. More 

 recent observations in the same direction are reported upon 

 some preceding pages. 



As a careful consideration of all our results to date leads 

 practically to the same conclusions, the subsequent final 

 summary of our work has been prepared with a view of 

 enabling, as far as practicable, all parties interested in our 

 special line of inquiry into the economy of milk production 

 to draw their own conclusions, and to ascertain for them- 

 selves whether the stand-point taken in our several reports, 

 of progress, is justifiable by the facts presented. 



