fodder corn, corn stover and a good corn ensilage for English hay in 

 the daily diet of dairy stock. 



It is generally admitted that the present condition of the market 

 for dairy products calls for the closest investigation of every point 

 which bears on the cost of the production of milk, and it will be not 

 less conceded that next in importance to the selection of cows of 

 good milking qualities comes the consideration of the cost of their 

 daily diet. 



NET COST OR FEED. 



The actual cost of a daily diet for any kind of farm live 

 stock does not alone depend on the temporary market price of 

 a given quantity of the vnrious ingredients which constitute 

 the daily fodder rations, but also in a controlling degree on the 

 quantity of some essential articles of plant food, in particular, of 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potassium oxide, they contain ; and 

 the amount of these which may be secured in some definite proportion 

 in form of manurial refuse after the fodder has served its purpose 

 for the support of the life and the functions of the animal, which 

 consumes it. As has been already stated on previous occasions, the 

 net cost of a daily diet is ascertained by deducting from the sum of 

 the market price of its various ingredients, the sum expressing the 

 commercial value of the manurial matter obtainable in each partic- 

 ular case. This circumstance deserves for obvious reasons the most 

 serious consideration on the part of farmers when choosing from among 

 the various suitable fodder articles offered for their patronage, those for 

 a daily diet of their farm live stock, which will ultimately prove the 

 cheapest in their position in consequence of the higher commercial 

 value of the manurial lefuse they furnish. 



It becomes the more important to select with that view in mind as 

 the fluctuations in the local market price of oil cakes, gluten meal, 

 corn meal, wheat bran and of similar refuse materials (by products) 

 of flour mills, glucose works, starch works, breweries, etc.. are, as a 

 rule, liable to be more frequent and more serious than in case of home 

 raised coarse or bulky fodder articles, as P^nglish hay, corn stover, 

 corn ensilage, etc. The commercial value of the manurial refuse 

 obtainable from the first-named class, in case of corresponding 

 weights and under similar circumstances exceeds quite frequently 

 from two to three times that obtainable in case of the latter. 



Applying this standard of valuation to our feeding experiments 

 we notice the following relations : 



