1893.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 69 



gluten feed, corn germ meal, dried brewers' grain, malt 

 sprouts, etc., are but recently more generally offered for a 

 similar purpose. 



Their im})ortance as an additional valuable fodder supply 

 for the support of every l)ranch of animal industry on the 

 farm and elsewhere has l)ecome from year to year more 

 conspicuous, on account of a marked increase of the supply 

 of well-known articles, as well as of the introduction of 

 many new kinds. Their consumption is apparently daily 

 increasing, and seems to keep step with the supply. 



The special value claimed for commercial feed stuffs as an 

 important source of fodder supj)ly rests in the main on their 

 fitness to supplement advantageously our coarse home-raised 

 fodder crop in the interest of a higher feeding effect and of 

 a better economy. A frequently good mechanical condition, 

 as well as an exceptionally valuable chemical composition, 

 adapt many of them in a high degree for that j)urpose. 



As no single farm crop or any part of them has been 

 found to supply economically and efficiently to any 

 considerable extent -the particuhir wants of food of our 

 various kinds of farm live stock to secure the best possible 

 results, it becomes a matter of first importance from a mere 

 financial stand-[)oint to know how to supplement our current 

 farm crops to meet the wants of each kind of animals under 

 various circumstances in a desirable degree To secure the 

 highest feeding effect of each fodder article raised upon the 

 farm is most desiral)le in the interest of good economy. 



Practical experience in the dairy has thus far abundantly 

 shown that the efliciency of a daily diet does not so much 

 depend on the mere use of more or less of one or the other 

 reputed fodder article as on the presence of suitable fodder 

 articles which contain the three essential groiqjs of food 

 constituents, i. e., organic nitrogenous, non-nitrogenous and 

 mineral constituents of plants, in a desira])le form, and in 

 such relative proportions and (|uantities as have been recog- 

 nized to 1)6 necessary to meet efficiently the food supply 

 of the dairy cow. Similar relations are known to exist in 

 regard to the diet best adapted in case of all kinds of 

 animals. An economical system of stock feeding has to 

 select among the suitable fodder articles those which famish 

 the required qualitj and x>^^portion of the three recognized 



