The Pennsylvania State College 

 Agricultural Experiment Station 



BULLETIN No. Ill 



THE MAINTENANCE RATION OF CATTLE 1 



By HENRY PRENTISS ARMSBY, Director of the Institute of Animal Nutrition. 



In a bulletin 2 bearing this title, published in 1898, the writer 

 discussed the data regarding the maintenance ration of cattle which 

 were available up to that time, including the results of a series of 

 experiments at this Station extending over five years. Investiga- 

 tions upon cattle by the Institute of Animal Nutrition, which have 

 been in progress since 1902 and in which the income and outgo of 

 matter and of energy have been determined with the aid of the 

 respiration calorimeter, have incidentally afforded data regarding 

 the maintenance ration which are in certain respects unique. Some 

 additional results have also been reported by other investigators, 

 while the aspect of the whole subject has been considerably modi- 

 fied by the scientific progress of the past dozen years. In the fol- 

 lowing pages an attempt is made to outline the present state of 

 knowledge on this subject from the more recent point of view. 



DEFINITION OF MAINTENANCE. 



Feed is supplied to farm animals either that they may yield 

 products useful to man as materials for human food and clothing or 

 that they may serve him by the performance of mechanical work. 



1 Investigations under the Adams Act in cooperation with the Institute 

 of Animal Nutrition and the Bureau of Animal Industry of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



Pennsylvania Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 42. 



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