82 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



and hay to be compared with about the same quantity of 

 cotton hulls. The results, as would naturally be expected, 

 were in favor of Ration II. This latter ration contained 

 also 4 pounds more of digestible matter. In the second 

 trial, six cows were each given daily 6 pounds of Buffalo 

 gluten feed and 2 pounds of wheat bran. Ration I. con- 

 tained in addition 10.6 pounds of cotton-seed feed, and 

 Ration II. 4 pounds of corn meal and 9.7 pounds of clover 

 hay. It is not possible to regard this as a fair comparison, 

 for any one can see at a glance that 4 pounds of corn meal 

 and 9.7 pounds of clover hay (13.7 pounds) must give 

 better results than 10.6 pounds of cotton-seed feed. At 

 least a fairer comparison would have been to have matched 

 the cotton-seed feed against a like quantity of clover hay. 

 Simply because cotton-seed feed consists of a mixture of 

 cotton-seed hulls with cotton-seed meal, it is not at all 

 necessary when making a comparison to put the like amount 

 of cotton-seed meal or other grain into the opposite ration. 

 By so doing, one simply compares cotton-seed hulls with 

 some other fodder or fodder combination. The hulls them- 

 selves have an inferior nutritive value; experiments have 

 demonstrated that their nutritive effect is increased by the 

 addition of the cotton-seed meal. In order, therefore, to 

 get at the feeding value of this material, it must be regarded 

 as a single feed stuff, and ought to be compared with other 

 coarse fodders of similar composition. It has been the aim 

 of the experimenter, in the two experiments that follow, to 

 make such a comparison. 



A. Composition of Cotton-seed Feed. 



The first lot of feed, supplied through the kindness of 

 Mr. H. C. Haskell of the Southern Cotton Oil Company of 

 Savannah, Ga., was said to have been mixed in the propor- 

 tion of 1,600 pounds of hulls to 400 pounds of meal. The 

 lot for the second experiment we prepared ourselves, in the 

 same proportion. The two lots varied very little in moist- 

 ure, but, for the sake of more exact comparison, the results 

 are presented in dry matter. 



