70 AGEICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



essential food constituents in a digestible form, at the lowest 

 cost. 



Actual observations in stock feeding fully confirm the 

 correctness of the al)ove statement, that a judicious selec- 

 tion from among the current commercial feed stufls, for 

 the purpose of serving in connection with one or more of 

 our home-raised fodder plants as a fodder ingredient of the 

 daily diet, does, as a rule, tend not only to improve their 

 food value, but also lowers in the majority of cases the net 

 cost of the feed consumed. For more details regarding the 

 determination of the intrinsic value of fodder rations I have 

 to refer on the })resent occasion, for obvious reasons, to 

 preceding annual reports. 



T/te majority of commercial feed stufs occupij in a 

 rational system of stock feeding a similar position to our 

 home-raised fodder crops, as is commonly conceded to the 

 cooninercial fertilizer, with reference to the barn-yard manure 

 for the production of farm crops; they serve for the prepara- 

 tion of a complete diet under different conditions and for 

 different purposes. The individual merits of each of them 

 become in the same degree better appreciated, as the 

 principles which govern animal nutrition are more generally 

 understood, and find a due recognition in our modes of 

 compounding the daily diet for different kinds as well as for 

 different conditions of the same kind of animals. They are 

 as a class to-day considered indispensable for a remunerative 

 management of every branch of animal industry on the farm 

 and elsewhere. 



Many of the commercial feed stuffs contain, aside from a 

 liberal amount of phosphoric acid and potash, an exception- 

 ally large percentage of nitrogen. This circumstance gives 

 them a special claim, indei^endent of their respective food 

 value for animals. A lil)eral addition of these feed stuffs 

 to the daily diet of any kind of animal imi^arts to the 

 manurial refuse resulting from their use a corresponding 

 hiirher commercial and airricultural value as a valuable 

 source of plant food. A judicious and lil)eral introduction 

 of a quite numerous class of commercial feed stuffs into the 

 daily fodder supply of the animals kept on the farm is for 

 this reason deservedly recommended as a safe and economical 



