12 
BULLETIN 29, PORTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
Notwithstanding the prevailing high prices paid for concentrated 
feeds, Porto Rican dairymen are importing them in larger quantities 
every year. As long as milk continues to bring high prices this 
importation can be profitably made, but bran, shorts, cottonseed 
meal, corn meal, and some of the proprietary feeds should never be 
used in any large amount. Grasses make the most economical feed 
and should be fed in abundance, as witness the native stock, which 
have never been fed concentrates and which thrive well on grass even 
when it is poor in quality and insufficient in quantity. The follow- 
ing table gives the feeding value of some of the grasses which grow 
in Porto Rico : 
Composition of some grasses growing in Porto Rico. 
[On basis of fresh green material.] 
Kind of grass. 
Guatemala 
Elephant . . 
Guinea 
Malojillo.. 
Moisture. 
Ash. 
Frotein. 
Crude 
fiber. 
Fat, 
Sucrose. 
Reduc- 
ing sugar. 
Per cent. 
Per cevi. 
Per cent. 
Per cert. 
Per cent. 
Per cent. 
Per cent. 
81.89 
1.68 
0.95 
6.35 
0.19 
0.06 
0.39 
86.31 
1.34 
.69 
4.56 
.17 
.17 
.77 
69.57 
3.14 
1.23 
11.54 
.36 
.30 
.53 
76.04 
2.04 
1.24 
8.C6 
.44 
.43 
.63 
Carbo- 
hydrates 
not sugar. 
Per cent. 
3.59 
2.74 
6.21 
5.03 
Salt should be kept before the animals at all times. The milk 
yield decreases considerably when it is withheld. Generous quanti- 
ties of drinking water, as good as that used for household purposes, 
should be supplied the animals several times daily, but especially 
in the morning before rumination (chewing the cud) takes place. 
The average cow needs from 50 to 100 pounds of water a day, de- 
pending upon the ration. 
Cattle should be fed' at the same hours each day, because regu- 
larity and uniformity in feeding have much to do with the profits 
resulting from dairy farming operations, and they are potential 
factors in influencing the milk yield. The cattle should always be 
kept free from excitement and fright. As soon as the average Porto 
Rican stockman learns to appreciate the relative values of the dif- 
ferent stock feeds and how to select wholesome feeding stuffs he will 
be able to grow his stock more economically than he now does. 
SILAGE. 
Silage is green fodder that has been kept in an air- and- water-tight 
silo. The station erected the first silo in Porto Rico (PL III, Fig. 
2), and has successfully ensiled corn, the silage being equal to that 
produced in the States and greatly relished by cattle. Cane tops 
did not make a very good product. Fermentation does not take 
place when the tops are too dry, and it passes from the alcoholic to 
