44 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



cate the substitution of dry fodder corn, corn stover and a 

 good corn ensilage for English hay in the daily diet of dairy 

 stock. 



It is generally admitted that the present condition of the 

 market for dairy products calls for the closest investigation 

 of every point which bears on the cost of the production of 

 milk ; and it will be not less conceded, that next in impor- 

 tance to the selection of cows of good milking qualities comes 

 the consideration of the cost of their daily diet. 



Net Cost of Feed. 



The actual cost of a daily diet for any kind of form live 

 stock does not alone depend on the temporary market cost 

 of a given quantity of the various ingredients which consti- 

 tute the daily fodder rations, but also in a controlling degree 

 upon the quantity of some essential articles of plant food (in 

 particular of nitrogen, phospiioric acid and potassium oxide) 

 which they contain, and the amount of these which may be 

 secured in some definite proportion in form of manurial 

 refuse, after the fodder has served its purpose for the sup- 

 port of the life and the functions of the animal which con- 

 sumes it. As has been already stated on previous occasions, 

 the net cost of a daily diet is ascertained by deducting from 

 the sum of the market price of its ingredients, the sum 

 expressing the commercial value of their manurial con- 

 stituents obtainable in each particular case. This circum- 

 stance deserves, for obvious reasons, the most serious 

 consideration on the part of farmers, when choosing from 

 amono; the various suital)le fodder articles oifered for their 

 patronage, those for a daily diet of their farm live stock 

 which will ultimately prove the cheapest in their position, 

 in consequence of the higher commercial value of the manu- 

 rial refuse they furnish. 



It becomes the more important to select with that view 

 in mind ; as the fluctuations in the local market price of oil 

 cakes, gluten meal, corn meal, wheat bran and of similar 

 refuse materials (by-products) of flour mills, glucose works, 

 starch works, breweries, etc., are, as a rule, liable to be 

 more frequent and more serious than in case of home-raised 

 coarse or bulky fodder articles, as English hay, corn stover, 



