AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 61 



to determine the quality of local strains of beans which have been carried 

 in New Hampshire families for many years. 



These locally-grown dried beans were cooked under controlled con- 

 ditions and compared with standard commercial bean varieties, such as 

 White Navy, Red Kidney, Yellow Eye, Michelite, Great Northern, and 

 Robust. For each series of cooking tests a standard sample of Lapin Bean 

 served as a control in judging various characteristics of the bean samples 

 such as color, shape, texture, and flavor. The perfect score for bean sam- 

 ples was 40. The average score results are available in table form, and 

 have been weighed by giving flavor a value of 50 per cent, texture, color 20 

 per cent each, and shape 10 per cent. Of the 74 samples the three highest 

 scored samples were native grown, namely : Pole Horticulture, Cranberry, 

 and Improved Yellow Eye. The commercially-grown beans ranked below 

 eight of the New Hampshire grown beans. In order of desirability they 

 were : Yellow Eye, ]\Iichelite, Red Kidney, Robust, Great Northern, and 

 Lapin, and thev were scored within the upper limits and the range was 

 35.76 - 19.91. ^ 



The length of cooking time for the bean samples ranged from 20 min- 

 utes to 81 minutes. 



T. Levcowich 



Nutrition Studies with Lactating Cows 



The work done this year includes nine experiments in which the com- 

 plete ingo and outgo of matter and of energy of lactating cows were 

 measured by means of digestion balances and metabolism experiments. 

 These experiments represented successive stages of lactation, and different 

 levels of production, and they included dry rations and -rations in which 

 freshly cut grass was substituted for hay and beet pulp. Simplified low- 

 protein grain mixtures, consisting of cornmeal, wheat bran, and ground 

 oats were used. A record of production was also obtained, while the cows 

 were grazing on inferior pasture supplemented with various amounts of this 

 grain mixture. 



One major result indicated the possibility of a more accurate basis, 

 physiologically, of expressing the protein requirements of mature cattle. 

 Another result of critical significance was that when feeding according to 

 standard recommendations the trend has been to supply a material excess 

 of protein and a bare sufficiency, or even a deficit of energy (T.D.N. ), 

 when production exceeded 40 pounds of milk per day. 



When feeding freshly cut grass (60 to 65 pounds) which was fairly 

 mature (July), it was impossible to supply sufficient energy to maintain 

 a balance. At 40 and 45 pounds production, even with the addition of 12 

 pounds of grain, the energy deficits were 9024 and 7755 calories, respect- 

 ively (i.e. 5.1 to 4.8 pounds T.D.N. ), although the protein deficits were 

 relatively small. 



Grain mixes of low-protein content and consisting of home-grown 

 feeds, such as cornmeal, ground oats, and wheat bran, supply adequate pro- 

 tein for production up to 40 pounds of milk, when they are fed in a ratio of 

 about one pound to four pounds of milk, (provided that about half the 

 roughage consists of good legume hay). At levels of production above 40 

 pounds of milk per day there was a tendency toward a greater deficit in 



