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President Appleton presided, and introduced Prof. 

 Joseph B. Lindsay, of the Mass. State Experiment Station, 

 as the speaker of the morning. 



The speaker at first emphasized the fact that a great 

 deal depended on the cow. No method of feeding would 

 get twenty quarts of milk from a ten quart cow ; never- 

 theless there is a right way and a wrong way to feed any 

 cow, — an economical and a wasteful way. Upon a proper 

 method of feeding, depends the success or profitable way, 

 or the unprofitable way, with loss in the dairy industry. 

 The subject was divided into two sections, the theoretical 

 and the practical. 



The meaning of the different terms used in the analysis 

 of cattle foods was explained, and attention called to the 

 fact that food is valuable only so far as the cow can 

 digest it properly and assimilate it ; thus if a cow is fed 

 20 lbs. of hay a day, she can digest only 55 per cent, of the 

 same, or about 11 lbs., and only so much is valuable as 

 nourishment, the balance being excreted in the form of 

 manure. The term " nutritive ratio " means the ratio 

 which the nitrogeneous substances bear to the non-nitro- 

 geneous or starchy substances. Foods are divided into two 

 classes, the coarse fodder and the concentrated fodder ; the 

 coarse fodders, such as are generally raised on the farm are 

 from 55 to 65 per cent, digestible, and with one or two 

 exceptions have a nutritious ratio of 1 to 10. The concen- 

 trated foods, such as cotton seed meal, gluten meal, etc., 

 are from 75 to 80 per cent, digestible, and have a nutritive 

 value of one to two. 



Cud-chewing animals, such as the cow, are so made that 

 they can consume and digest a large amount of bulky 

 foods, but if anyone would get the best results, a liberal 

 amount of concentrated food should be fed with the coarser 

 foods. Many investigations have shown that a cow of 1000 

 lbs. weight, needs about 3 lbs. of digestible portion, i to | 

 lbs. of digestible fat and 13 lbs. of digestible carbon- 

 hydrates in order to enable her to do her best work. The 



