AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 83 



Station. The aim is to reduce cattle feeding to a system, so that 

 there shall be no waste, or in other words, so that the maximum 

 production shall he obtained from a given weight of food. The 

 basis of such a system must be a knowledge of the proper combina- 

 tions of food ingredients^ for the various purposes of stock feeding. 

 When possessed of this knowledge the farmer can then select his 

 suppl}' of purchased foods with reference to his needs, and from the 

 cheapest sources. The following explanations of the nature and 

 office of the ingredients of cattle foods are offered as an aid to 

 understanding the analytical and experimental data given farther on. 



Explanations.* The analysis of any plant or animal substance 

 with reference to its use as a cattle food does not go so far as to 

 determine the percentage of every single ingredient in the material 

 analyzed, but only aims to learn the percentages of certain classes 

 of compounds, the members of each class having a close resem- 

 blance in composition and in nutritive effect. Thus we have in all 

 fodder tables several columns of figures headed by the following 

 terms : Water, Ash, Protein, Crude Fiber, Nitrogen-free Extractive 

 Matter, and Fats. As these terms are in constant use, not only in 

 this report but in all agricultural literature, they are made the sub- 

 ject of such explanations as seem necessary in order to show their 

 relation to animal nutrition. 



The water or moisture of cattle foods, of which all contain more 

 or less, is measured by the loss of vreight which takes place when 

 the substance is dried for some time at the temperature of boiling 

 water, or 212*^ Fahrenheit. The percentage of water is very large 

 in green crops, sometimes constituting more than nine-tenths their 

 weight, and comparativelj^ small in all dried materials. In all 

 feeding stuffs which exist in the air-dry condition, the percentage of 

 moisture varies somewhat according to the state of the atmosphere, 

 so that in rainy or moist weather a given quantit}' of hay or grain 

 that is at all exposed to the air will weigh more than during a time 

 of dryness. Freshly cured hay and newh^ harvested grain contain 

 more water than old hay and grain, the difference being an import- 

 ant consideration in buying or selling by weight. While the water 

 in cattle foods has no nutritive value above water that an animal 

 drinks, its presence or absence often has a marked influence upon 

 the palatable ness of feeding stuffs. 



♦These explaiiatious will iiot iipiiear in tutmu bulletins and report". 



