AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 27 



pound steer in three years a fairly creditable performance. Such 

 an animal, if fat, would furnish for the purpose of human food, 

 not far from 375 pounds of edible dry matter. 



No one can find fault with the assumption that it would cost as 

 much to feed this steer for three years as it would to feed a cow 

 giving milk for half that time, or, for a year and a half. Esti- 

 mating the expense of the food on the same basis that we have 

 for the cows, the food cost in the case of the steer three years old 

 would be $96, making the food expense of producing a pound of 

 edible dry matter in the butcher's meat 25.6 cents. According to 

 these figures, the food cost of producing human food by means of 

 the dairy cow as compared with beef production would be as 

 100 :353. 



Composition of the Milk. 



The milk of the several animals has been analyzed during the 

 two years' test to as full an extent as it was possible. On the 

 average, samples of milk have been taken of the night's and 

 morning's milk for about 45 days in each year, the intention 

 having been to take samples for five consecutive days in each 

 month during the time the cows were giving milk. During the 

 time from June 1888 to April 1889 the night's milk and morning's 

 milk were analyzed separately, but since that time equa- 

 quantities of the two have been mixed and this mixture has been 

 analyzed. 



In calculating the composition of the first year's milk, the ash 

 was assumed to be .75 per cent. Analyses made during the sec- 

 ond year have shown that .75 per cent, for the Jersey's and .65 

 per cent, for the Holstein and Ayrshire milk would more accu, 

 rately represent the amount of ash, and in the calculations of the 

 composition of the second year's milk these figures have been used 

 the averages for the first year being corrected to correspond. 



The following tables show the averages of each cow's milk for 

 each period of five days, and also the average for each cow for 

 the whole year : 



