94 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



above-mentioned essential articles of plant food, contained 

 in the manure secured in connection with our feeding experi- 

 ments with milch cows, has differed in case of different diets 

 from less than one-third to more than one-half of the market 

 cost of feed consumed. 



As the financial success in a mixed farm management 

 depends, in a considerable degree, on the amount, the char- 

 acter and the money value of the manurial refuse material 

 secured in connection with the special farm industry car- 

 ried on, it needs no farther argument to prove that the 

 relations which exist between the composition of the fodder 

 and the value of the manure resulting deserve the careful 

 consideration of the farmer when devising an efficient and, 

 at the same time, an economical diet for his live-stock. To 

 assist in a due consideration of this important circumstance 

 a compilation of analyses of a great variety of fodder articles 

 made in the course of years at the Massachusetts Experiment 

 Station has been added to this report in the form of an 

 appendix. 



Valuation of Concentrated Commercial Feed Stuffs. — 

 Most of our concentrated feed stuffs, as oil-cakes, brans, 

 middlings, maize feed, gluten meals, starch feed, etc., are 

 by-products of various branches of industry. The articles 

 contain, as a rule, a more liberal amount of nitrogenous 

 food constituents than the materials from which they are 

 obtained, and they are usually bought for the purpose of 

 raising the nitrogen-containing food constituents of the 

 daily diet of our farm live-stock to a desired proportion. 

 This general practice is based on the circumstance that the 

 larger portion of our home-raised coarse fodder articles, as 

 meadow hay, fodder corn, corn stover, corn ensilage, roots, 

 etc., is, comparatively speaking, quite deficient in nitrogen- 

 containing food constituents, to meet, in an economical way, 

 the requirement of an efficient daily diet for dairy stock, 

 hard- worked animals, young farm live-stock of various 

 kinds, etc. The concentrated commercial feed stuffs, if 

 judiciously selected and in a proper mechanical condition, 

 are admirably adapted to add to our home-raised coarse 

 fodder articles that food constituent in which they are de- 



