26 
BULLETIN 945, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
GRAIN MIXTURE E. 
Corn-and-cob ineal 55 pounds. 
Wheat bran 30 pounds. 
Linseed meal 15 pounds. 
NaCl 1 pound. 
GRAIN MIXTURE F. 
Ground oats 28 pounds. 
Linseed meal 20 pounds. 
Cottonseed meal 10 pounds. 
Gluten feed 14 pounds. 
Hominy feed 14 pounds. 
Wheat bran 14 pounds. 
Nad 1 pound. 
ACCOUNT OF UNSUCCESSFUL AND INCOMPLETE EXPERIMENTS. 
Many experiments on the effects of phosphate feeding were begun 
and then had to be abandoned because the animals aborted or failed 
to calve, or for other reasons. In other cases phosphate was fed to cer- 
tain animals, but under rather different circumstances from those in 
the experiments which have been reported. We wish to mention 
briefly these unsuccessful and incomplete experiments partly because 
the results sometimes furnished interesting hints, partly in order to 
avoid any suspicion that the results reported for the successful experi- 
ments might be cases unconsciously selected in which the milk yield 
happened to be large after the phosphate feeding. 
Several animals were started on the control rations, and subse- 
quently either aborted or turned out to be sterile. It is not necessary 
to say anything about these further than that, in the cases where they 
aborted, the milk yields were such as would be expected from a con- 
sideration of their histories in comparison with those of the rest of 
the general herd. 
Cow 63, whose 1918 and 1919 lactation periods have already been 
described in detail, was started again on the basal rations in 1920. 
She carried her calf to term, but acquired an acute general infection 
after she had been milking about two weeks, which rapidly reduced 
her milk yield to a very low point, and finally made it necessary to 
have her slaughtered. She began this lactation period, however, with 
a milk yield which promised to be as good as or better than that of 
1919 after the phosphate period. It is to be remembered that her dry 
period in 1919 on the phosphate feeding was 103 days : and her dry 
period in 1920 was also about 100 days. We are inclined to think that 
these long dry periods made it possible for her to store up a good 
quantity of calcium and phosphorus, and it would not be surprising if 
the effect of the long dry period with phosphate feeding in 1919 lasted 
into 1920. 
Several cows started on the phosphate feeding turned out to be 
sterile ; and one aborted in addition to cows 49 and 54, whose histories 
have already been reported in detail. The abortion in question oc- 
curred at a period when it was the custom to remove aborting cows 
from the farm immediately, and before we realized that cows which 
