have stimulated inquiries concerning the safest modes of manuring, of 

 cultivating, and of harvesting our different farm crops with the pros- 

 pect of securing the most satisfactory returns under existing cir- 

 cumstances. 



A better knowledge regarding the particular qualit}' of the various 

 articles of fodder at our disposal improves our chances of supplement- 

 ing them judiciously and thus economically, for different kinds of farm 

 live stock, as well as for different conditions and functions of the 

 same kind. It furnishes, also, a safer basis for the explanation of 

 the results obtained in actual feedmg experiments. To study the 

 nutritive value or feeding effect of any of our fodder articles by act- 

 ual feeding experiments without learning, as far as practicable, some- 

 thing more definite regarding its particular quality, or composition, 

 deprives the results obtained largely of their general interest, for they 

 are secured under ill-defined circumstances. The chemical analysis 

 of an article of fodder is for these reasons considered the first step re- 

 quired to render an intelligent interpretation of the results in feeding 

 trials possible. Actual feeding experiments have shown that three 

 groups of plant constituents^ namely, nitrogenous, non-nitrogenous, 

 and mineral constituents, are needed to sustain successfully animal life. 

 No one or two of them, alone, can support it for any length of time. 

 In case the food does not contain digestible non-nitrogenous sub- 

 stances, the fat and a portion of the muscles of the animal on trial 

 will be consumed in the support of respiration before its life termi- 

 nates. In case digestible nitrogenous constituents are excluded from 

 the diet, the formation of new blood and flesh from the food consumed 

 ceases, for the animal system, according to our present state of 

 information, is not capable of producing its principal constituents 

 from anything else than the nitrogenous constituents of the plants. 



Herbivorous animals receive these substances directly from the 

 plants ; carnivorous animals indirectly, by (ceding on herbivorous 

 animals. We feed, at present, our farm stock too frequently without 

 a due consideration of the general natural law of nutrition ; to deal 

 out our fodder crops only with mere reference to name, instead of 

 making ourselves more familiar with their composition and their par- 

 ticular quality, deprives us even of the chance of drawing an intelli- 

 gent conclusion from our present system of feeding. 



To compound the animal diet with reference to the particular organ- 

 ization of the animal, its age, and its functions, is of no more impor- 

 tance than to select the fodder substances with reference to its special 

 wants, as far as the absolute and relative quantity of the thj-ee essen- 

 tial groups of food constituents are concerned. 



The peculiar character of our home-raised fodder articles is apt to 

 conceal their special deficiency for the various purposes they are used 

 for in general farm management. They all contain the three essential 

 food constituents, yet in widely varying proportions, and they ought, 

 therefore, to be supplemented in different directions to secure their 

 full economical value. To resort to more or less of the same fodder 



