Proportion of Protein in Fattening Ration 343 



It is gratifying to discover that feeding experi- 

 ments with fattening oxen, conducted under the im- 

 proved methods of research, give results not inconsist- 

 ent with the facts to which attention has been called. 

 Kellner very ably discusses a large number of such 

 experiments, made by himself and associates with the 

 aid of the respiration apparatus, and he emphatically 

 declares that the nutritive ratio of a fattening ration 

 may vary from 1:4 to 1:10 without affecting the 

 increase of body substance from a unit of digestible 

 food material, provided, however, that the nutrients 

 supplied above maintenance needs shall come from 

 the more easily digestible feeding stuffs. He cites, in 

 the support of his conclusion, the outcome of nineteen 

 previous experiments by Wolff, in which rations va- 

 rying in nutritive ratio from 1:4 to 1:9.5 showed 

 no material differences in the efficiency of a unit of 

 digestible matter. It seems, then, that scientists are 

 coming to agree that a wide nutritive ratio is not 

 inconsistent with most successful feeding of fattening 

 steers, especially those that are mature. If the ani- 

 mals are so young as to be making material growth, 

 then it is conceded that there is more reason for avoid- 

 ing a very wide ratio. 



Among the practical feeding experiments conducted 

 in the United States, there are several instances where 

 the wide ratio rations have been found equal to the 

 more nitrogenous. On the other hand, and perhaps 

 in a majority of experiments, the rations containing 

 the largest proportion of protein have caused the most 

 rapid growth. In 1893 the writer made a careful study 



