FEEDING EXPERIMENTS. 



PART I. 



The object of this bulletin is to place in the hands of the New 

 Hampshire farmer, a brief statement of some of the experiments 

 made during the winter of 1888-9, for the purpose of determing the 

 the feeding value of various fodders and grains, in the produc- 

 tion of mirk and butter, and as the period of winter feeding 

 is at hand, I have thought best to give in condensed form, the 

 principles and laws which are at the bottom of successful, prac- 

 tical stock feeding showing how these laws find expression ia 

 which are called " Feeding Standard. ' The tables given are a 

 reprint of those in Bulletin N"o. 4 of this station ; Their use 

 though exceedingly simple, is, nevertheless a key to successful 

 practical feeding, and no farmer in the state who has stock to 

 feed can afford to neglect the teachings of these tables for by 

 their use the cost of production of milk, on an average, may, in 

 my opinion, be reduced one fifth from the present figures any 

 such estimate must be a matter of opinion but it is true in all 

 lines of manufacture that the substitution of exact, in place of 

 hap-hazard methods, of demonstrated laws instead of guesses, in- 

 variably reduces the cost of the manufactured article, and the 

 production of milk beef or pork is no exception to this. 



Rational methods in stock feeding depend upon two things. 

 First, we must know what a given animal requires daily. Sec- 

 ond, we must have some means of knowing where and how to 

 get these materials in the right quantity and proportion. These 

 two requirements are satisfied by tables I and II. 



WHAT THE TABLES ARE 



Table I, called "Feeding Standards," tells us at a glance 

 how much digestible material is required d?i\\y for 1000 lbs. live 

 weisrht for the various animals under the several conditions 

 mentioned. This table originated in Germany and represents 

 the average of a great number of carefully conducted practical 

 tests in which the food was weighed, and samples of it analys- 

 ed and its digestibility determined. It is very reasonable to 

 suppose that these results are, in the main, reliable and accurate, 



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