CHAPTER X 
RELATIVE VALUE OF FEEDING STUFFS 
WE have seen that the relative cost of feeding stuffs is a matter 
of the greatest importance to the farmer. If he has to buy feeds for 
his stock in order to supplement the farm-grown crops, as nearly all 
farmers have to do, he must give due regard to getting the most for 
his money in actual feeding value. He should be in position, there- 
fore, to ascertain the relative feeding value of the available feeds 
according to the best information at hand. . 
The relative value of feeding stuffs may be measured in several 
ways: According to (a) the market prices of the feeds; (6) their 
contents of digestible nutrients; (c) their energy values, and (d) 
the feed units which they furnish. 
Considering first the market values of feeds, it is well known that 
these are subject to great variations and are influenced by a number 
of factors which do not necessarily bear on the intrinsic feeding 
value of the feeds. To illustrate, alfalfa is as valuable a feed in™ 
the western States,.where it may be bought at $8 a ton or less at 
times, as in the eastern or central States, where it generally com- 
mands more than twice this price; again, cotton-seed meal and 
cake are worth as much to the southern farmer as to the Pacific 
coast feeder or the European dairyman. But these latter have to 
pay nearly twice as much for it as the former. 
The question of cost of transportation is evidently of paramount 
‘ importance in determining the market price of a feed; another 
factor is the reputation of a particular feed, which greatly influences 
the demand for it. The relative prices of cotton-seed meal and 
linseed meal well illustrate this fact. In many sections of the 
country the former furnishes considerable more protein at the same 
or lower prices than the latter, and is fully as good a feed for most 
purposes, and still does not find as ready sale as linseed meal. The 
market prices of feeds are often not a reliable guide to their intrinsic 
value, and they also fluctuate greatly in different places and in differ- 
ent years; hence any attempt to gauge the value of feeds according to 
their cost is bound to prove unsuccessful. Several authors—and the 
writer among them—have calculated the commercial values of pro- 
tein, fat, and carbohydrates in concentrated feeding stuffs from the 
82 ’ 
