22 BULLETIN 631, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The plan of the barn was such that the calves could not have the 
run of the open lots. The pens were kept well bedded for the first 
six weeks, but there were so many steers on feed at the same time 
that but small amounts of bedding could be used after the sixth 
week. The pens were muddy and sloppy during the latter half of 
the feeding periods. 
A water trough was in each pen and water was furnished from 
a deep well. Feed throughs were used for feeding the silage and 
grain, and the alfalfa was fed in racks over the troughs. The shat- 
tered leaves from the racks fell into the feed trough, so there was 
no waste of feed. 
The feeding was done at 7 o'clock in the morning and 3 o'clock 
in the afternoon. 
CHARACTER AND PRICE OF THE FEEDS. 
As this experiment was for the comparison of grain rations the 
roughage for all lots was the same. The calves of all lots were fed 
about 5^ pounds of cottonseed hulls and 3J pounds of alfalfa hay 
per head daily and given in addition all of the silage they would eat. 
The cottonseed meal was about the average in quality. Analysis 
showed an ammonia content equal to about 7.2 per cent nitrogen. 
The corn was not quite as good as the average of Mississippi corn. 
The cottonseed hulls were of average quality, the hulls used being 
good for the entire time except for a very short period when some 
hulls of an inferior grade were received. These were fed but a few 
days until good hulls could be obtained. The alfalfa hay was bright 
and of good quality, but contained a little Johnson grass. The corn 
silage contained very little grain this year and was not as good as 
usually is made on southern farms. Taken as a whole the feeds, with 
the exception of the silage, were just about the average of what are 
used on the stock farms of the South during average years. 
The following prices were used for the feeds : 
Cottonseed meal per ton__ $23. 50 
Cottonseed hulls do 6. 50 
Corn-and-cob meal per bushel . 70 
Corn silage per ton__ 3. 00 
Alfalfa hay do 15.00 
The prices used for cottonseed hulls and meal were the actual cost, 
whereas the prices used for other feeds were those used in other ex- 
periments and represented a good price for the farm-grown feeds 
and a profit to the farm in the production of them. 
AVERAGE DAILY RATIONS BY PERIODS. 
The calves of all lots had a preliminary feeding period from Oc- 
tober 25 to November 13, during which time they were getting ac- 
customed to the feed lots, to eating their feeds, and were recovering 
