1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
175 
the inferior cow more the production of nature, 
and, accordingly, the best and poorest cow of the 
herd, being fed with an increased supply of food, 
in every case the better cow will respond to a 
greater extent than the poorer,"— that is to say, 
the better cow is one whose stinicturc, developed 
through Ions generations of improving influenceB, 
determines the deposition of assimilated food to a 
greater degree in the udder products. There is a 
limit to the possible butter production of every 
cow, and if butter be the product sought, there 
will be no gain in feeding beyond this limit. If one 
cow is capable of making two pounds of butter 
per day, and another but one pound per day, the 
one will turn into profit only half as much food as 
the other— that is, only half as much of what is in 
excess of the actual requirements of vitality. If it 
takes ten pounds of food to keep the animal in 
good condition, an additional ten pounds may all be 
returned in the product of the good cow, while 
only half of it would be returned in the product 
of the poor cow, the other half going to waste. 
Or, as Dr. Sturtevant states it, " the quantity of 
milk (or butter ? ) yielded by an animal, is depend- 
ent both on her structure and nutrition. In the 
presence of sufficient food, it is determined entirely 
by structure, which is equivalent to saying, by 
inheritance." The improvement of the domestic 
cow has increased her capacity for digesting food, 
and her economy in digesting, and has extended to 
her glandular structure, giving it a greater power 
to throw off the products of digestion in a valuable 
form. It is believed that the effects of domestica- 
tion and copious feeding, has been actually to in- 
crease the length of the intestines, and Cuvier states 
that while the intestine of the wild boar is 9 times 
the length of his body, that of the common domes- 
tic boar is los times, and of the Slam breed 16 
times. Whether entirely from this cause or not, it 
is certainly true that the superior cow will give a 
larger proportional return from copious feeding, 
than will an inferior one ; and while it may be 
profitable to feed corn-meal and other nutritious 
food to animals of the best class, it is quite sure to 
EGsult in a loss if fed to those of the worst class. 
The result we wish to obtain in feeding dairy ani- 
mals, is to obtain a valuable product in the form of 
butter and cheese, and this is an artifieial result — 
to obtain it we must use artifieial means, that is, 
an animal developed by art to an unnatnral deter- 
mination of the products of digestion to the udder. 
Some of Dr. Sturtevaut's general conclusions are 
as follows : " The production of butter is largely 
dependent on breed ; There is a structural limit to 
the butter production of each cow ; When the cow 
is fed to this limit, increased food can not increase 
the product ; The siiperior cow has this structural 
limit at a greater disfemce from ordinary feed, and 
is more ready to respond to stimuli than the infe- 
rior cow ; The character of the food has some influ- 
ence on the character of the butter, but even here 
breed influences more than food. 
Science Applied to Farming.— V. 
Br Prof. W. O. Atw.^teb, Wesletan UNrvERsiTT 
Middletown, Conn. 
Hon" Science is SaTlnsc itioney and IncreasinE 
the Profits of FnrmioB:— Fnrlher About Feed* 
ins Animals. 
Many farmers consider straw and cornstalks as 
nearly worthless for fodder. Others feed them to 
their stock, and find them very valuabla. On Eng- 
lish farms you may see straw stacked as carefully 
as hay, and sold at a guinea ($5.09 gold) per ton, 
for mixing with other food for stock. And in 
France and Germany straw is as staple an article 
of fodder as hay. I recall one case in Germany, 
when oat straw was rated at .?.5.50, good clover hay 
at SS.50, and field beets at .$'.3.1.5, gold, per ton ; an- 
other whore barley straw was valued at $1..S3, and 
clover hay at $13.00 per ton, these being the prices 
at which those materials were actually bought and 
sold for fodder. And in those parts of this coun- 
try and of Europe espesially, which are most noted 
for their «iicce88ful agriculture, straw and Ube fod- 
der-materials are used with profit, not only for 
store cattle and sheep, but also for horses, work- 
ing oxen, milch cows, and fattening catUe. The 
theory that these foods contain so much material 
for making meat and milk and producing animal 
heat and muscular force, is well explained on sci- 
entific grounds, is proved by practice and is supported 
by accurate cxpcHments. Here is a table giving the 
average values of different foods as based upon the 
amount of dir/esfible, nutrUive nuitcn-al they contain, 
taken from the German farmer's diary, referred to 
in previous articles ; 
Per ton.] Per ton. 
Meadow liay $9.00' Bean straw $6.93 
Winter wheat straw 4.82 Wheat chaff 6.39 
Summer barley straw 4.86'Oat straw 5.49 
Cornstalks 5.40 Winter barley straw 4.23 
Clover hay 11.17 Pea straw 6.03 
Rye straw 3.781 
Now why is it that so many American fanners 
put so low an estimate upon straw, and like sub- 
stances, and what is the secret of making them 
so valuable for fodder in Europe? One reason 
for this difference is doubtless the fact that 
here the grain is often allowed to stand too 
long before harvesting. Early cut straw, like 
early cut hay, is much more digestible and nu- 
tritious than that which is allowed to stand longer. 
European farmers, who make so good use of straw, 
harvest their grain much earlier than many do with 
us. The land there, too, is much better manured 
than it is here, and grain, well supplied with barn- 
yard manure, guano, or other fertilizers containing 
much nitrogen, yields a large luxuriant stalk, which 
keeps green until quite mature. Well manured hay 
and clover are more nutritious than those poorly 
manured, and the same is doubtless true of straw. 
But the great reason why farmers find such foods 
as straw of little worth, is that lohen fed alone, they 
have really but little value. To get the full benefit 
of all the digestible material of straw, other things 
must be mixed with it. It will be well worth while 
to study this matter carefully. It was explained in 
the last article, th.at the value of food for making 
meat and milk, or producing heat to keep the ani- 
mal warm, or muscular force needed for work, 
depends upon the digested portion. In an experi- 
ment there described* an ox digested 7'',a lbs. from 
16 Vio lbs. of good hay. At this rate the animal 
would digest from 17 lbs. of hay, and from 30 lbs. 
of straw, about the same amount of nutritive ma- 
terial, viz. : 8 lbs. Mark that, there wets as nni^'h nit- 
tntire nuitericd. from !20 lbs. of out straio as from 17 
lbs. of hay. This is not mere theory, it is the testi- 
mony of the animals themselves, verified by the 
strictest scientific tests, not in one case alone, but 
in scores, yes hundreds of accurate feeding trials. 
But it would be' absurd to claim that 20 lbs. of 
straw is worth as much for fodder as 17 lbs. of hay. 
The quantify of the nutritive material and its t'afu^; 
arc two different things, as the table below explains : 
Consisting of 
Dtffesttble Albuml- Carbo- 
materials. nolds. f>ydr<ites. 
8 Bs. .65 7.35 
Stti. 1.37 6.63 
20 lbs. of straw 
17 n>8. of meadow hay. 
In other words, the meadow hay furnishes t^vice 
as much digestible albuminoids as the straw, and is 
more valuable fodder. Straw is, however, very 
valuable when ted so as to secure the utiliziition 
of the digestible material which it actuiUy eon- 
tains. To make it an appropriate fodder for the 
ordinary demands of our domestic animals, we 
must mix with it some other substance rich in 
nitrogen. In fact, in the experiments referred to, 
the straw was mixed with bean meal, which eon- 
tains a large proportion of albuminoids. In this 
way the fullest utilization of both was secured. 
Let us examine this matter closely. We learned 
in the last two articles, that to feed stock economi- 
cally, tlie food must contain just fueh quantities of 
albuminoids and carbo-hydrates, as are adapted to 
the demands of the animals. An ox at rest in the 
stall, or a dry cow, requires a certain amount of 
food containing a certain quantity of these substan- 
ces. But if the ox is t» bo kept at work, or the 
cow is to give milk, more food will be required. 
And this extra amount must consist largely of 
albuminoids. The reason for this is very simple. 
• 8ee Table In Article No. IT. Xpr'^i AgrioMurlst . 
Milk is produced from material in the food. AD 
the casein (curd), and much of the fat (butter), 
are made from the albuminoids. So food for milch 
cows must be rich in nitrogen. The same is true 
of fattening cattle, since all the lean meat, and 
much of the fat meat, comes from the nitrogenous 
material, (albuminoids), of the food. In the sams 
way the muscular force is produced in great part 
from albuminoids, and the working ox must have 
food rich in nitrogen. 
The practical lesson to be learned, is, that we need 
not necessarily feed these aniniaJs a large extra quaniiiy 
ff more costly hay or clover, to gel the additional alb'Jh 
mUwids, but that we may v^ sfrairj and the like, to 
supply carbo-hydrates, an,d add « smaU quantity of 
food containing much nitrogen in a concentrated form. 
F'or example, a good quantity of stratc, with a few 
pounds of beans, oil-cake, etc., furnish the animal with 
just the same iwcessary food material^, as a large sup' 
ply of more costly hay. It is by cartfutty studying these 
principles and applying them to practice that the greats 
est saring, and conseqiKiUly the largest profit, is made. 
We have not space to explain the elaborate and 
costly feeding trials by which these principles have 
been learned, but we may illustrate the facts by 
some familiar examples. Young succulent grass or 
clover is a natural food for milch cows. With 
these they will give a full yield of rioh milk. They 
will likewise do well on hay of prime quality 
such as that which grows on uplands and consists 
of gi'asses mixed with clover and other leafy un- 
dergrowth. But it is a matter of common expe- 
rience, that the best production of milk can not be 
obtained from hay of average quality, and still less 
from that of inferior grades, such as is grown on 
marshes, or has been injured by rain. With straw 
alone, the yield of milk would be very poor indeed. 
Store cattle, however, as oxen at rest, and dry- 
cows, may be kept in fair condition on even the 
poorer qualities of hay, and they will live and some- 
times do passably well on good straw. Now let 
us see how much of digestible material these foods 
would contain. From table 6, in the April number 
of this series, we make the following calculations, 
the figures representing general averages : 
Digest- Coaststinff o/ 
ible , ■ , 
There Is contained in Siib- Atbu- Carbo- r- , 
stances minoids hy'atea 
TbB. lbs. lbs. JbB. 
no Ib«. yonng grass 15.5 2.5 12.6 0.4 
30 ws. of prime quality bay.. 15.6 2.5 12.8 8 
33 ll>s. of aver;iKe quality hay. 15.8 1.8 18.7 8 
40 lbs. of lnferl<)r quality hay. 15.6 1.4 14 2 
40 lbs. Oat straw 15.6 0.5 14.9 02 
47 lbs. Wheat straw 15.7 0.4 15.1 0.2 
Now let us compare the above figures. A cow 
will digest from 110 lbs. of young grass about 15i 
lbs. This would consist of 21 lbs. albuminoids, 
12V6 lbs. carbo-hydrates, and ='5 lb. fatty matter, 
and would make a good daily ration for an ordinary 
cow of 1,000 lbs. live weight. 30 lbs. of prima 
quality hay would give about the same proportions 
of nutritive substance, and with this, too, the cow 
would give a good yield of milk. If, however, she 
has hay of only medium quality, she would have 
to eat 33 lbs. to get her l.'ii lbs. of digestible sub- 
stance, and then she would have only I'/s lb. al- 
buminoids, or about i as much as before, and the 
milk yield would be smaller. If she had the in- 
ferior hay, she would have to get all the digestible 
material from 40 lbs. to make up the same amount 
of 1.54 lbs., and would still have but l='s lb. albu- 
minoids. With the straw the case would be still 
worse. The cow would be unable to digest 15t 
lbs. from a daily ration of 47 lbs. It is a remark- 
able fact that animals do not digest all the really 
digestible material of their food, unless it has a 
certain proportion of nitrogen, and this must be 
larger than that in the straw. One chief defect of 
these poor foods, then, is lack of nitrogen. What 
is the remedy? Clearly, to supply nitrogen. 
To secure the full value of str.aw and like ma- 
terials in feeding, we must combine them with 
other substances rich in nitrogen. There are a 
great many substances which contain a larger pro- 
portion of albuminoids than is necessary under 
any circumstances. One of the most important of 
these is clover. There are certain other plant* 
similar to clover, as lucem, esparsette, and sera- 
della, which ire largely cultivated In many places. 
