262 
Besiralle Agricultural Experiments. 
districts under precisely the same rules, it is possible that very 
conclusive results might be attained. It is not certain that this 
would be the case, as the results of the several trials might be 
conflicting. On the other hand, they might all tell in the same 
direction, and so prove sufficiently conclusive. At the worst, 
they would afford a pretty close indication of the difference in 
_ food consumption of the two breeds. 
The second experiment suggested is one to compare the 
food-consumption and milk-production of Shorthorn and Jersey 
cows. Ten three-year-old animals of each breed should be 
selected by competent judges, and fed under regulations similar 
to those prescribed for the first experiment. The cows should 
all be taken into the trial a week after calving, and kept for a 
year. All the milk of each lot should be weighed or measured 
daily, and all should be made into butter under the same con- 
ditions. At the end of the trial the quantities and cost of 
the food consumed by each lot, and the quantities and selling 
value of the products of each, should be published. Here, again, 
if the trial were carried on simultaneously and under identical 
conditions by six or more societies, valuable information would 
certainly be forthcoming, and it is possible that conclusive evi- 
dence as to the superiority in profitableness of one breed as com- 
pared with the other might be obtained. It would be well worth 
while to make these trials, if only for the sake of gaining 
approximate information as to the difference in the consumption 
of food by one of the best of small breeds and one of the best of 
large breeds of dairy cows. 
After these two experiments had been concluded, others of 
like character with different breeds might be carried out. It is not 
desirable to particularize them now, because it is of the utmost 
importance to have a beginning agreed upon with certain breeds 
for each trial, in order that it might be carried out by several 
bodies or individuals under the same strict conditions. 
It has been stated that no well-known and publicly-con- 
ducted examples of such trials as I have suggested have ever 
been made in this country. Nor am I aware of trials of 
precisely the same character having been made in any other 
country. In Germany, for many years past, experiments have 
been carried out in order to ascertain the average requirements, 
in food constituents, of animals of various live weights and in 
different stages of fattening, dairy cows, and lean stock of dif- 
ferent ages. Such trials have been so systematically pursued 
that Dr. Wolff has felt justified in publishing precise statements 
of the quantities of the principal nourishing constituents of food 
required per day by such animals. Upon how many trials 
