92 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



frequently found in the general record of a fodder for a 

 practical agricultural purpose — is that of" Nutritive Ratio." 

 These words are used to express the numerical relation of its 

 digestible nitrogenous substances taken as one, as compared 

 with the sum of its digestible non-nitrogenous organic sub- 

 stances, fat included. The information derived from that 

 statement is very important ; for it means to express the 

 summary of results secured by actual feeding trials under 

 specified conditions, and with the aid of the best endorsed 

 chemical modes to account for the constituents of the food 

 before and after it has served for the support of the animal 

 on trial. 



Experience has shown that different kinds of animals, as 

 well as the same kind at different ages and for different 

 functions, require a different proportion of the essential 

 groups of food constituents to produce in each case the best 

 results. A statement of the nutritive ratio of a fodder 

 article — otherwise well adapted as an ingredient of a daily 

 diet in the case under consideration — indicates the direction 

 in which the material has to be supplemented to economize 

 to a full extent its various constituents. 



Practical trials with milch cows have demonstrated that 

 they require for the highest production of a good milk and 

 the maintenance of a healthy live weight, the most nutritious 

 food we are in the habit of o-ivin^ to full-srown farm animals. 

 Careful examinations into the composition of an efficient 

 diet for milch cows have shown that it contains one part of 

 digestible nitrogenous matter to from five to five and a half 

 parts of digestible non-nitrogenous organic matter. A due 

 consideration of these facts renders it but natural that a 

 good corn ensilage, which has a nutritive ratio of from 1 to 

 10 to 1 to 12, needs a liberal addition of substances like oil- 

 cakes, wheat bran, gluten meal, etc., which have a nutritive 

 ratio of 1 to from 2.5 to 4, to secure its full value as an 

 ingredient of a daily diet in the. dairy ; or that good hay 

 shows less the beneficial effects of an addition of these 

 valuable waste products than that of an inferior quality. 

 The nutritive ratio of hay may vary from 1 to 5.5 to from 1 

 to 9 or more. 



