100 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



being al)out six hundred pounds for the feeding season of one 

 hundred and seventy-one days. 



The loss is charged to the hay and stover, and the balance 

 struck accordingly, which left the value of the hay and stover 

 to be 83.83 per ton. No account is made of the five pounds of 

 shorts per day, which at $>1.35 per hundred weight, would be 

 -^11.54 for the feeding season, and showing that meadow hay 

 and corn stover are not worth the housing ; for were it not for 

 the shorts the cow must certainly have starved to death. 



For the reasons above stated, we believe that an experiment 

 continued for so short a time cannot be satisfactory, and that 

 public opinion has set a value upon the various kinds of feed, 

 much nearer the truth than can be ascertained by a trial of a 

 few days' continuance. Your committee had intended to exam- 

 ine at greater length this report from which have been taken 

 the above statements, but it would extend our remarks more 

 than would be proper, and we will conclude by saying that in 

 our opinion, no kind of food can be substituted for English hay 

 to get the same amount of nutriment at the same cost, and that 

 while roots, shorts and meal may be fed in connection with the 

 various grasses with good results, yet to fix their precise value, 

 would require trials of greater length, and perhaps be more 

 expensive than most farmers would be willing to incur. 



We believe that an animal fed on any one kind of food for a 

 few days, and then changed to another better or worse, will 

 show tlie true value of that food ; but in order to get at any 

 thing like the true value of the article used, animals as nearly 

 alike in age and condition as possible, should be selected and 

 fed, each on a particular kind of food, for a period of at least 

 three or four months. 



And your committee also believe, that in order to get the 

 most advantage from the article used, that regularity in feed- 

 ing, both as regards time and quantity, should be strictly 

 observed. If the trustees wish to have this subject further 

 investigated, we think an excellent o])portunity presents itself 

 at the society's farm in Topsfield. 



As no opportunity has occurred for a consultation among the 

 members of the committee, since the writing of this report, the 

 undersigned is chiefly responsible for what is said in it., 



John L. Uubbard, C/tairman. 



