62 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



5. Discussion on Fodder Articles and Fodder Sup- 



TLIES. 

 [Home-raised Fodder Articles. — Commercial Feed Stuffs. — 1892.] 



The fodder articles used in the preparation and compound- 

 ing of the daily diet of all kinds and conditions of farm live 

 stock are, as a rule, obtained from two distinctly diiferent 

 sources. They are either raised upon the farm and are used 

 usually without any material change in composition, or they 

 are bought in the general market, and are in that case usually 

 the by-products or waste materials of various other branches 

 of industry, as oil works, flour mills, starch works, glucose 

 Itictories, breweries, etc. 



The home-raised fodder crops furnish in the majority of 

 cases the coarse fodder constituent of the daily diet, while 

 the waste or by-products of other industries furnish the fine 

 or grain feed portion of the daily fodder rations. A rational 

 and economical system of stock feeding has assigned to each 

 of these two groups of feed stuffs its pro})er position in the 

 daily diet of all kinds of farm live stock, with special ref- 

 erence to their general character, adaptation and composi- 

 tion, as well as to good economy and particular efficiency. 



A liberal and economical supply of both classes o^ fodder 

 articles is to-day recognized as an indispensable requirement 

 of an economical system of stock feeding. To meet our 

 present market condition of the products of the dairy and of 

 the meat supply with any reasonable prospect of a satisfac- 

 tory compensation for capital invested and labor spent, calls, 

 if possi])le, for cheaper and more efficient fodder rations than 

 in the majority of instances are in current use. 



The importance of a serious and careful considerfition of 

 the present condition of our fodder supplies, fro7n both above- 

 stated sources, forces itself from day to day more, not only 

 upon the attention of every farmer , but of all parties interested 

 in the support of our animal industry. 



The controlling influence of the temporary local market 

 cost of some of our most prominent current fodder articles 

 on the cost of the production of milk and meat, has been for 

 years ])ointo(l f)ut in our bulletins and annual reports, in con- 



