92 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Work iisr Peogkess. 



Alfalfa Meal. — An experiment is at present in progress 

 to study the value of alfalfa meal as a substitute for wheat 

 bran in milk production. It is understood to be the inten- 

 tion of feed jobbers in the near future to place alfalfa meal 

 upon the market in liberal quantities as a competitor of bran, 

 claiming it to be equal in feeding value and superior in its 

 effect upon the general health and condition of the animal. 

 The indications are that these claims cannot be fully sub- 

 stantiated. 



The Effect of Molasses iqyon the Digestibility of Other 

 Feed Stuffs. — German investigators have long since estab- 

 lished the fact that the addition of considerable quantities 

 of starch, sugar and roots depresses the digestibility of the 

 other feeds entering into the composition of the ration. In 

 our j)revious studies with Porto Rico molasses, as published 

 elsewhere in this report, it has been shown that when molasses 

 constituted some 25 per cent, of the dry matter of the ration, 

 a depression of some 15 per cent. Avas caused in the digesti- 

 bility of the latter. Other experiments are now in progress 

 to note if smaller quantities of molasses (10 per cent, of the 

 dry matter of the total ration) will cause relatively as large 

 a depression as twice and thrice that amount. 



The Digestihility of Proprietary Grain Bations. — Nu- 

 merous grain mixtures are now upon the market as ready 

 rations for dairy stock. The station is ascertaining the com- 

 position and particularly the digestibility of these rations 

 as compared with home mixtures that the dairymen can pre- 

 pare by purchasing the high-grade concentrates to be had in 

 all local markets. It is believed that most of these proprie- 

 tary mixtures are not as economical nor as efficient for milk 

 production as the home mixtures. 



Early Amber Sorghum. — The station has continued its 

 observations with this plant as a summer forage crop. Dif- 

 ferent seedsmen report anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds of 

 seed to be necessary for an acre when sown broadcast. Three 

 twentieth-acre plots were fertilized alike, and the sorghum 

 so^m broadcast at the rate of 100, 80 and 60 pounds to the 



