- 424 - 



It would appear from the above table that for utilising the food 

 supplied the greatest aptitude is shown by the Aberdeen-Angus 

 (The number of experiments, however, is not large enough to be 

 conclusive on this point) followed by the Shorthorn, Hereford, 

 "Bluegrey, " Galloway, Ayr, Welsh, Irish crosses, and Norfolk Polled, 

 in the order given. Too much reliance, however, should not be 

 attached to this conclusion, as the conditions of feeding etc. have 

 been so varied. 



Remarks on some of the Foodstuffs used. In studying the tables 

 it appears: 



I. That, as a rule with a few exceptions, the quantity of 

 digestible matter supplied per day has been larger in the recent 

 experiments than in the earlier ones. 



II. That beans which were formerly often used have in recent 

 experiments been rarely used. In the Table, beans or bean-meal 

 have entered into the rations of 28 lots. The average gain of 

 these lots was 1.935 tt>s. P er day. (The average of all being 

 1.803 Ibs.) but tne average of food consumed per i Ib. of increase 

 was 9.368 Ibs. (The average of all being 9 Ibs.) Perhaps this in- 

 dicates that beans are palatable and enable the animals to eat 

 largely, but are not very economical. 



Superiority of Leguminous fodders. 



III. The success of rations in which clover-hay enters in con- 

 siderable quantity. 



The good effects of clover hay is doubtless partly due to its 

 high content of albuminoids, but in the writer's opinion it is pro- 

 bably connected with the nature and amount of its ash constituents. 

 He has recently called attention to the importance of the relative 

 proportions of lime and phosphoric acid in the food of animals, 

 especially with reference to bone development and nutrition (i), 

 and has shown that a diet composed wholly of cereals furnishes a 

 large excess of phosphoric acid as compared with lime, and to this 

 circumstance he attributes the prevalence of certain bone diseases 

 among horses and mules fed entirely upon oat hay or oat hay and 

 maize. 



Now in almost all seeds, oil cakes etc. the phosphoric acid 

 greatly exceeds the lime in amount, while in the straw of wheat, 

 barley, and oats there is only a slight preponderance of lime. 



(i) Vide Journal of Comparative, Pathology and Therapeutics, March 1907. 



