1920.] Notes on Feeding Stuffs for February. 10 17 



promoting early root development, quite apart from its effect 

 on the adult plant ; there is no evidence that mineral phosphates 

 can act in this way. Further, there are many cases in which 

 basic slag has had remarkable effects in regenerating poor 

 pastures ; here, also, there is no evidence that mineral phosphates 

 would act equally well. The average results show that mineral 

 phosphates can produce useful effects on the adult plant under 

 suitable conditions, but not enough is known about these con- 

 ditions to justify advice to individual farmers as to w^hether 

 mineral phosphates would be useful to them or not. 



It is just a year since it was decided to suspend the issue of 

 these notes. All that time the shortage of all kinds of feeding 

 stuffs was so acute, and the control so 

 Notes on Feeding stringent, that owners of live stock were 

 Stuffs for February: constrained to buy what they could get, 



A "^^i^/^/-.- and advice was of little value. The 



Antmal Nutrition .... 

 Institute, Cambridge general Situation is now somewhat easier 

 University. and supplies are improving, so that advice 

 as to the purchase and use of feeding stuffs 

 may once more be of some practical use. These notes will 

 therefore in future appear in the Journal every month, and 

 the present article must be considered as introductory. 



It may be useful to draw attention to some of the more 

 striking lessons of the War and to point out certain facts 

 about the trend of suppHes. 



Beef Production. — To those who are engaged in the produc- 

 tion of winter beef, perhaps the most surprising fact w^hich has 

 emerged from the exigencies of the War is the small amount 

 of concentrated food which is really necessary for full-grown 

 cattle fattening on roots and straw. This fact has been 

 thoroughly estabhshed in a series of feeding trials carried out 

 during the War and reported in this Journal* under the title 

 " War-time Beef Production." Since then the trials have been 

 repeated at the Norfolk Agricultural Station and on the writer's 

 own farm with entirely similar results. In these trials full- 

 grown bullocks on a ration of i cwt. to ij cwt. of roots, and 



10 lb. to 14 lb. of straw or straw and hay, supplemented by only 



1 1 lb. per head per day of common cotton cake, were ready 

 for the butcher in from 16 to 20 weeks, by which time more than 

 half of them were supergraded. Several typical animals on 

 slaughter yielded over 56 per cent, of dressed carcass. Further, 



* Issue for September, 1918, p. 623. 



