34 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



Now by supplying feeds of that sort, the right kinds 

 of feeds in the right amounts, we are supplying balanced 

 rations. I am not going to talk to you this morning about 

 balanced rations. That is an old story, dating back to 

 1864 when Wolf the German scientist recognized that fun- 

 damental fact. So that idea of balancing rations is very 

 old in agriculture and in science, yet many people who are 

 using today automobiles, and who have radios in their 

 homes, who are using telephones and these other modern 

 inventions which are all products of an age since the idea 

 of feeding standards and balancing rations, many of these 

 same people do not recognize that this old discovery of 

 balanced rations is probably more essential to their happi- 

 ness and welfare than a radio or even a telephone. There 

 is absolutely no question about it. 



Now, just a few things about the importance of bal- 

 ancing rations and the practical significance of it. Just 

 as Mr. Glover has so well spoken this morning, the funda- 

 mental lack in dairy rations is commonly a deficiency of 

 protein, and it is impossible for a dairy cow to produce 

 efficiently or abundantly unless that need is supplied. 



Now he has already given part of my speech, in point- 

 ing out how legumes will supply a great need in the dairy 

 ration. Just let me mention some experiments carried on 

 at our institution which illustrates that point. Professor 

 Hart, of our Agricultural Chemistry Department, a few 

 years ago carried on so-called matabolism experiments 

 wherein he analyzed all food consumed by cows, and then 

 collected all the facts and circumstances over a period of 

 one year and analyzed them. 



He found that when a cow was fed even good clover 

 hay with good corn silage and other farm grain, if she was 

 producing thirty of forty pounds of milk, the cow was 

 constantly losing protein or nitrogen from her body. 



Right there is the first reason why milk is such an 

 excellent article for human diet, not only for children but 

 for adults as well. A cow cannot produce this high pro- 

 tein food unless supplied with plenty of the proper ration. 



When cows are fed an abundance of alfalfa hay, all 



