63 



In view of the great variety of opinions and the great diver- 

 sity of practice as revealed in the foregoing table, we would seem 

 to be warranted in concluding that the practical feeder regards 

 one roughness is practically as good as another for cattle when 

 on full feed. This is tantamount to saying that in their judg- 

 ment the roughness in full feeding exerts very little influence 

 upon the result and is really a matter of little importance. 



Feeding Experiments with Different Kinds of Roughness. 



On the theory that the feeder is generally right and that any 

 important difference between two methods or practices would 

 be discovered by him, and the poorer or less profitable one 

 soon discarded, we would be forced to conclude, by the great 

 variety of opinions expressed concerning the value of rough- 

 ness, that it makes little difference what roughness is used or 

 in what amount it is fed. This furnishes, however, a very 

 striking exception to the rule, for the opinions of these practical 

 feeders are widely at variance with the results of careful and 

 elaborate experiments on this point, conducted at this Station. 



During the past eleven years, very systematic experiments 

 in the comparison of the various kinds of roughage both for win- 

 tering and for fattening cattle have been made, and it has been 

 found that the kind of roughness exerts a profound influence 

 upon the cost of gain and a large influence upon the finish or 

 quality of the cattle at the end. The results for fattening cattle 

 are none the less striking than are those for cattle that are being 

 merely wintered. 



Inasmuch as a special bulletin detailing all of these results 

 and considering this phase of the subject in detail is in course of 

 preparation, and that such a bulletin for wintering cattle has 

 been published,* the results of only one or two experiments 

 will be given here. These results may be safely accepted, how- 

 ever, as fairly representative of a large number of others and to 

 establish the law laid down above, that the kind of roughness 

 given exerts a profound influence upon the rate and cost of gain 

 and upon the finish of the cattle. 



*Bulletin 75, Mo. Exp. Station, "Methods of Wintering Cattle.' 



