18 



>< ni 



The next shows how brome hay may be utilised. 



8. 



Protein. Fuel. 



8 ITjs. brome hay .36 3..j2 



8 ITjs. alfalfa .80 3.39 



20 lbs. corn silage .22 3.39 



ms. bran .31 3.04 



3 lbs. shorts .3.5 1.95 



2.10 15.29 



" Pea and oat hay could be used instead of the alfalfa, and roots instead 

 of silage in tliis ration ; also wheat chop instead of shorts. 



" How TO Balance a Ration. 



" Use of Xutritlce Ratio. Suppose a farmer has timothy hay, alfalfa hay, 

 and oats, and desires to feed heavily-worked horses a ration that shall contain 

 all the protein and fuel they need, how much of each shall he feed ? Of 

 course, the amount of the feed will depend on the size of the horses, the 

 amount of work they are doing, and to some extent on the individuality of 

 the horse. Let us assume a ration for a thousand-pound horse, at heavy 

 work, as follows, and see if it has the proper nutrients (a ration is a day's 

 feed) : 



Protein. Fuel. 



8 IT)s. timothv hay .23 3.55 



8 1T)S. alfalfa hay .86 3.S9 



10 lt)S. oats .93 5.77 



2.02 12.71 



"■ By consulting the table of feeding standards, we find that a thousand- 

 pound horse at heavy work requires 2.8 lbs. protein and 15.2 lbs. fuel daily. 

 The above ration is too low in both classes of nutrients. Let us add 4 lbs. 

 of oats : 



1st ration 2.02 12.71 



4 lbs. oats .37 2.31 



2.39 15.02 



" We have now enough fuel, but not enough flesh formers. Now. comes 

 in the use of the nutritive ratio. The nutritive ratio of this ration is 15.02 

 -f-2.39=6.3. The ratios of the three feeding stuffs may be found by consult- 

 ing the last colunm of the table of digestible constituents of feeding stuffs, 

 and are as follows : 



Timothy 15.3 



Alfalfa 3.9 



Oats 6.3 



"The ration we want has a ratio of 15.2-t-2.8=5.43. The ratio of the 

 ration we have is 6.3, and we now wish to reduce it to 5.43. Since the ratio 

 of oats is the same as that of the ration, it will not change the ratio at all 

 to increase or decrease the amount of oats in the ration. But if we Increase 

 the amount of alfalfa it will lower the ratio, because the nutritive ratio of 



