1895.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 401 



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 groups of food con- 

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

 mineral constituents of plants, in a desirable form, and in 

 such relative proportions and quantities as have been recog- 

 nized to be necessary to meet efficiently the food supply of 

 the dairy cow. Similar relations are known to exist in re- 

 gard to the diet best adapted in case of all kinds of animals. 

 An economical system of stock feeding has to select a7nong the 

 suitable fodder articles those rvhich furnish the required qual- 

 ity and proportion of the three recognized essential food con- 

 stituents in a digestible form, at the lowest cost. 



Actual observations in stock feeding fully confirm the 

 correctness of the above statement, that a judicious selec- 

 tion from among the current conmiercial feed stuffs, 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 de- 

 termination of the intrinsic value of fodder rations I have to 

 refer on the present occasion, for obvious reasons, to preced- 

 ing annual reports. 



TJie majority of commercial feed stuffs occupy in a rational 

 system of stock feeding a si^nilar position to our home-raised 

 fodder crojis as is commonly conceded to the commercial 

 fertilizer loith reference to the barn-yard manure for the pro- 

 duction of farm, crops; they serve for the preparation of a 

 complete diet under different conditions and for different pur- 

 p)oses. 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 condi- 

 tions of the same kind of animals. They are as a class to- 

 day considered indisjiensablefor 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- 



