402 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



ally large percentage of nitrogen. This circumstance gives 

 them a special claim, independent of their respective food 

 value for animals. A liberal addition of these feed stuffs to 

 the daily diet of any kind of anjmal imparts to the manurial 

 refuse resulting from their use a corresponding higher com- 

 mercial and agricultural value as a valuable source of plant 

 food. A judicious and liberal introduction of a quite nu- 

 merous class of commercial feed stuffs into the daily fodder 

 supply of the animals kept on the farm is for this reason 

 deservedhj recommended as a safe and economical way to 

 increase the home production of plant food in the interest 

 of an increase in the fertility of the farm lands. 



As the financial success of a mixed system of farming in 

 particular depends to a considerable degree on the character, 

 the amount and the cost of production of the manurial refuse 

 secured in connection with the special farm industry carried 

 on at the time, it seems to need no further argument to 

 prove that the relation which exists between the temporary 

 market cost of the particular feed stuff under consideration 

 and the market value of the manurial elements which it con- 

 tains deserves a serious consideration when devising an effi- 

 cient and at the same time an economical diet. 



The character and commercial value of the manurial refuse 

 obtainable from any kind of feed stuff, under otherwise cor- 

 responding conditions, stand in a direct relation to more or 

 less of the different essential fertilizing constituents — phos- 

 phoric acid, potash and, in particular, nitrogen — it contains. 

 The commercial value of these three important articles of 

 plant food found frequently in prominent commercial feed 

 stuffs equals in many instances more than one-half of the 

 market cost of the particular fodder ingredient in question. 



The subsequent tabular statement may serve as an illus- 

 tration of these relations between market cost and fertilizing 

 value of some current reputed fodder articles : — 



