STOCK FOODS. 143 



CHAPTER VI. 



STOCK FOODS. 



IT seems proper to consider, preliminarily, the different 

 foods which may profitably be used by the stock-feeder 

 in the widely-varying conditions of soil and climate found 

 in our country, stretching over twenty-five degrees of 

 latitude and fifty-seven degrees of longitude. We do not 

 profess to be able to describe all foods actually used over 

 this immense territory, but we have endeavored to give 

 as many of those foods, decided in practice to be valu- 

 able, as possible, and especially all those that have been 

 brought to the chemical test of analysis. Many new plants 

 are constantly coming into profitable use after experiment, 

 and the list has been considerably enlarged during the last 

 decade. The last twenty years have been remarkably fruit- 

 ful in chemical researches, the laboratory being the leader 

 of agricultural progress, especially in Germany. The Ger- 

 mans have studied the analysis and feeding-value of cattle 

 foods more carefully, perhaps, than the agriculturists of 

 any other country. Their numerous Experiment Stations 

 have given them a great advantage in this respect, as these 

 have joined science and practice together worked out the 

 actual results in feeding and compared them with the 

 analysis. These experiments have not been carried far 

 enough to determine food-values with absolute accuracy, 

 but they are much in advance of our previous knowledge 

 of the digestibility of foods. They have attempted to de- 

 termine the money value, in the German market, of the 



