FOOD TABLES. 159 



COMMENTS ON THE TABLES. 



In the last set of the foregoing tables it is easy to com- 

 pare the value of every food given with average meadow 

 hay the value of which is figured at 64 cents for 100 Ibs., 

 and the value of each food figured on the same basis will 

 show the comparison above or below meadow hay. 



Dr. Wolff estimates the value of a food in Germany on 

 the basis of 4% cents for each pound of digestible albu- 

 minoids, and the same per pound for digestible fat, and .9 

 cent per pound for the digestible carbo-hydrates. These 

 tables represent nearly all the important cattle foods, ex- 

 cept a few grasses which have not been analyzed. A care- 

 ful study of these tables will give the reader a pretty cor- 

 rect knowledge of the constituents in our cattle foods, of 

 what is digestible and indigestible. The nutritive ratio, it 

 will be seen, differs very much in some classes of foods, 

 depending upon the condition. For example, the poorest 

 meadow hay has only 1 of albuminoids to 10.6 of carbo- 

 hydrates, whilst the best meadow hay has 1 of muscle- 

 forming food to 5.1 of heat or fat-forming food. This, as 

 will be seen by the " money- value," nearly doubles the 

 feeding- value of meadow hay. Animals kept on the former 

 would only be able to keep in store condition, without per- 

 ceptible growth, whilst the latter would keep them grow- 

 ing steadily. It will be noted that the nutritive ratio in 

 oat-straw is 1:29.9, and this is considered our best straw; 

 Rye-straw is still poorer in digestible albuminoids, the ratio 

 being 1 :46. 9. This very low nutritive ratio is occasioned 

 by the fact that qnly 26 per cent, of the albuminoids in 

 rye-straw is digestible, whilst an average of 48 per cent, 

 of the fibre and carbo-hydrates is digestible. It is quite 

 possible that Dr. Wolff has placed the digestibility of the 

 albuminoids in rye and oat-straw quite too low. The sam- 

 ples experimented with may have been inferior. But those 



