218 



Concentrated Feeding-stuffs. [June, 



and to what extent home-grown foods are deficient, and to 

 purchase only such foodstuffs as can supply the deficiency 

 to the best advantage. Without this knowledge one may be 

 misled into purchasing materials which, though excellent 

 enough in all general respects, are unsuitable and wasteful 

 for special purposes. It should be understood, for example, 

 that if decorticated cotton cake or soy bean cake is suitable 

 for a given purpose, certain other foods (e.g., maize, locust 

 beans) cannot alone supply the requirements efficiently; that 

 a milking cow requires a ration of very different composition 

 from that which is most suitable for a fattening bullock (vide 

 Leaflet No. 79); and that the use of certain foodstuffs (e.g., 

 undecorticated cotton cake) is attended with an element of 

 risk, especially in the case of young animals. 



Armed with knowledge of this character, the farmer, in 

 estimating the relative merits of the different feeding-stuffs 

 to which his attention is directed, should first of all obtain 

 representative samples and submit them to careful inspection, 

 using a magnifying glass for the purpose if possible. He 

 may thus be able to detect any gross adulteration (weed seeds, 

 dirt, &c), and satisfy himself as to the palatability, freshness, 

 hardness (if a cake), and other outward characteristics of each 

 material. 



Assuming that the foods are practically of equal value in 

 these respects, the next proceeding should be to consider 

 their suitability for the class of stock for which they are in- 

 tended. (Information on this subject will be found in Leaflet 

 No. 79.) 



By this preliminary process of selection the unsuitable 

 foods will be eliminated, and it will remain to ascertain which 

 of the suitable foods it is most satisfactory and economical to 

 purchase. This will be determined as regards a given 

 feeding-stuff : — 



a. By its composition, digestibility, and "productive 

 value." 



6. By its content of manurial ingredients. 



The general significance of these factors is obvious, but it 

 is necessary to indicate how they are taken into account in 

 comparing the values of foods. 



