THE INFLUENCE OF CHEMISTRY. 129 



beef. We practical farmers are not particularly benefited by 

 knowinsT the amonnt of nitrogenous materials in certain 

 articles ; we want to know their value for the production of 

 the articles I have mentioned. If any professor can give us 

 that information, we want it. 



Mr. HiLLMAN of Marlborough. There is a point which oc- 

 casions me a great deal of difficulty ; it is this : It takes a 

 large amonnt of study on my part to comprehend these long 

 tables sufficiently to draw plain, practical working facts out 

 of them, that I can apply in the feeding of my stock. Now, 

 if this Board would suggest to the State chemist to simplify 

 and popularize, so far as it is possible, these statements, 

 bring them down to the capacity of a common farmer who 

 was born too soon to have the benefit of an education at the 

 Agricultural College, so that we can get something that we 

 can use, it would do us a ofrcat service. A few weeks ago 

 I W'Cnt to work one day, when I was shut in on account of 

 ill-health, on Professor Sanborn's essay which he gave at the 

 country meeting of the Board last year, and I worked harder 

 on that all day than I ever worked in the hay field. I saw 

 on looking into it that there was a rich mine of wealth, if a 

 man only understood clearly the principle, so that he could 

 work out all the information which Professor Sanborn em- 

 bodied in that essay. I studied it as carefully as I could, 

 and I finally decided upon what seemed to me to be a sen- 

 sible ration to make up for feeding to my stock. I had been 

 feeding all my cows the same feed ; I was not satisfied with 

 the results ; I did not know as I could get any better results ; 

 but a few days after that I commenced with a ration which it 

 seemed to me was sensible, so far as furnishing to the cows 

 the nutritive qualities they needed, and at a reasonable ex- 

 pense, as far as the cost of the ration was concerned. What 

 was the result? The first day of feeding the cows fell olf in 

 their milk ; the second day they gave about the same quan- 

 tity that they had been giving previously to the change ; the 

 third day there was an increase ; the fourth day the aggregate 

 increase in milk was twenty-five per cent. ; the fifth day one 

 or two cows had doubled their yield of milk. One or two 

 cows had illustrated the fact which my friend a moment ago 

 stated, that the same food does not affect all animals alike. 



