1894.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 125 



Y. 



FEEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH CALVES. 



One of the chief sources of profit to Massachusetts farmers 

 is the dairy industry. The creamery system is now gen- 

 erally in vogue, and there remains upon the farms the skim- 

 milk, the cream having been taken to the factory. How to 

 economically utilize this milk is a very important question, 

 for upon its disposition depends in no small degree the profit 

 or loss from the herd of cows. 



Object of the Experiment. 



For a number of years experiments have been carried on 

 at the station with growing pigs. The pigs were fed the 

 skim-milk in combination with various grain rations, and one 

 of the objects aimed at was to ascertain the returns per quart 

 for the skim-milk fed. Further on will be found a statement 

 of the results obtained on the basis of the different selling 

 prices of dressed pork. 



With the facts in hand, the next object was to see what 

 price could he obtained jje^' quart for the shim-milk when fed 

 to young calves^ either alone or in combination with various 

 other materials. Following these brief remarks is a descrip- 

 tion of the experiment. 



Description of the Experiment. 

 A detailed statement of the record of each calf will be 

 found at the end of the experiment. Calves Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 

 4 were fed for the first seven to ten days equal pai-ts of fresh 

 and skim milk ; then they were quickly brought to a skim- 

 milk diet exclusively. The milk was always given luke- 

 warm. After the first few weeks, in addition to the milk 

 various grains were fed ad libitum^ and with one exception 

 in a dry state. It is well known that the stomachs of young 



