1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Science Applied to Farming, LIV. 
More about Feeding: Stuffs and Fodder 
Rations. 
There are two very important matters connected 
with the economical feeding of stock which the 
teachings of modern science explain, but which too 
few fanners understand, how to adapt the food 
most economically to the wants of the animal and 
the purpose for which it is fed, and how to 
feed so as to make the richest and best manure. 
Either the concurrent testimony of the most ad¬ 
vanced science and the most profitable practice is 
false, or the farmers, of our older States especially, 
must improve their methods of feeding to farm 
most successfully. For this they need especially 
to—1st: Produce better foods by better manuring 
and culture, and by more careful gathering and 
housing.—2d. Carefully save the poorer foods and 
waste products, and feed .them so as to utilize the 
large amount of nutriment they contain.—3d. Use 
a greater variety of feeding stuffs, and in proper 
mixtures.—4th. Use more nitrogenous foods— i. e., 
(a) Raise more clover, and, where circumstances 
will allow, beans, peas, lucern, and other legumin¬ 
ous plants, (b) Buy cotton-seed meal, linseed 
meal, palm-nut meal, bran, and other nitrogenous 
foods, (c) Mix these rich materials with poor hay, 
straw, cornstalks, and the like, in such proportions 
as are fitted to the wants of the animals and the 
purposes for which they are fed. This will bring 
excellent fodder and rich manure at very low cost. 
To see why these facts are so, note the table below. 
Nutritive Ingredients of Foods and Feeding 
Standards. 
FOODS 
AND 
FEEDING STANDARDS. 
DIC 
I 
05 
2 
s 
55 
i 
3 
jO 
N 
IESTIB 
NGREI 
3s 
• e-o 
** 
0'S 
8.1 
LE 
>IEN 
FOOD 
TS. 
*3 
§ 
Nutritive ratio. 
Feeding Stuffs. 
as 
I. Hay. 
% 
% 
% 
Vo 
1 to 
Meadow Hay, poor. 
3.4 
34.9 
0.5 
88.8 
10.6 
“ “ medium. 
5.4 
41.0 
1.0 
47.4 
8.0 
“ “ very good.. 
7.4 
41.7 
1.3 
50.4 
6.1 
Red Clover, poor. 
5.7 
37.9 
1.0 
44.6 
7.1 
“ •• medium. 
7.0 
38.1 
1.2 
46.3 
5.9 
“ “ very good. 
8.5 
38.2 
1.7 
48.4 
5.0 
II. Straw. 
Winter Wheat... 
0.8 
35.6 
0.4 
36.8 
45.8 
Winter Rye. 
0.8 
86.5 
0.4 
37.7 
46.9 
Oat .. 
1.4 
40.1 
0.7 
42.2 
29.9 
Corn Stalks. 
1.1 
87.0 
0.3 
38.4 
34.4 
III. Roots and Tubers. 
Potatoes. 
U 
22.8 
0.2 
24.1 
21.6 
Sugar Beets. 
1.0 
16.7 
0.1 
17.8 
17.0 
Turnips. 
1.1 
6.1 
0.1 
7.3 
5.8 
TV. Manufacturing and 
Waste Products, etc. 
Sugar Beet Cake. 
1.8 
24.6 
0.2 
26 6 
13.9 
Malt Sprouts. 
12,8 
51.6 
1,7 
66.1 
4.7 
Wheat Bran, coarse. 
12 fi 
42.7 
2 6 
57.9 
3.9 
Rye Bran. 
12 2 
46.2 
3 6 
62.0 
4.5 
Linseed Cake. 
24.8 
27.5 
8.9 
61.2 
2.0 
Palm-Nut Meal. 
16.1 
55.4 
9.5 
81.0 
4.9 
Cotton-seedCake. 
17 5 
14.9 
5.5 
87.9 
1.7 
Cottou-seed Meal, decort’d_ 
31 0 
18.3 
12.3 
61.6 
1.6 
Flesh Meal. 
69.2 
11.2 
80.4 
0.4 
Dry Ground Fish. 
44.6 
8.6 
53.2 
0.5 
Feeding Standards. 
Per Day and per 1,000 Lbs. 
Live Weight. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
as. 
lbs. 
1. Oxen, at rest !n stall. 
0.7 
8.0 
0.15 
8.85 
12. 
2. Wool sheep, coarser breeds. 
1.2 
10.3 
0.20 
11.70 
9. 
“ “ liner breeds. 
1.5 
11.4 
9.25 
13.15 
8. 
8. Oxen, moderately worked... 
1.6 
11.3 
0,311 
13.20 
7.5 
“ heavilv worked. 
2.4 
13.2 
0 51! 
16.10 
6. 
4. Horses, moderately worked. 
1.8 
11.2 
0 6f 
13.60 
7. 
“ heavilv worked. 
2.8 
13.4 
0 8(1 
17.00 
5.5 
5. Milch Cows. 
2.5 
12.5 
0.4C 
15.40 
5.4 
6. Fattening Oxen, 1st period.. 
2.5 
15.0 0.5C 
18.00 
6.5 
“ “ 2d “ 
3.1; 
14.8 
0.71 
18.50 
5.5 
“ “ 3d “ 
2.7 
14.8 
0.60 
18.10 
6.0 
Rich vs. Poor Foods—Proportions of Digesti¬ 
ble Albuminoids, Carbohydrates, and Fats. 
Now let us take a poor food, as oat-straw, and 
compare it with good hay. One hundred pounds 
of “very good” hay contains about 50 lbs. of di¬ 
gestible material, while the same amount of oat- 
straw furnishes some 42 lbs. At this rate, 120 lbs. 
of oat-straw would supply as much nutritive ma 
terial as 100 lbs. of first quality upland hay. But it 
would not be worth as much for fodder. Why the 
straw is worth less appears when we compare the 
amounts of the different ingredients. The 100 lbs. 
of hay, with its 50 lbs. of digestible matters, fur- 
53 
nishes 7.4 lbs. of albuminoids against only 1.4 lbs. 
in the straw. So likewise the hay contains 1.3 lbs. 
of fats, the straw only 0.7 Jbs. But when we come 
to the carbohydrates we find just about the same 
amounts in both. The straw lacks albuminoids and 
fats, and these are the most valuable ingredients 
of the food. The albuminoids make all the nitro¬ 
genous tissues of the body, the lean meat (muscle), 
the gristle, skin, etc., all the albumin and casein of 
the milk, and part of’ the fat of the body and 
of the milk (butter), besides sharing in the pro¬ 
duction of animal heat and muscular force. The 
fats of the food are transformed into fats in the 
body, and share in the production of heat and force. 
They can not be made into muscle or other nitro¬ 
genous tissue, however, because they have no ni¬ 
trogen. At least, the present evidence is entirely 
in this direction. The carbohydrates do not make 
nitrogenous tissue in the body. They are proba¬ 
bly transformed into fats, but only to slight 
extent. They serve for fuel, and seem to aid 
in producing muscular force. They thus do a 
work of their own, which, if it were not for them, 
would be left for the costlier albuminoids and fats. 
So even if the carbohydrates are not made into 
flesh, fat, butter and casein themselves, they doubt¬ 
less do what amounts in practice to the same thing 
by saving the other ingredients to be used for 
these purposes. Starch ai d sugar are carbohy¬ 
drates, but they are at the same time valuable foods. 
The reason for the inferior worth of the straw 
may be seen from another standpoint in the last 
column of the table, “Nutritive Ratio.” The “ very 
good ” hay has 1 lb. albuminoids for every 6 lbs. 
carbohydrates (1 lb. fat being reckoned equal to 21 
lbs. carbohydrates), while the straw has one pound 
of albuminoids to 30 lbs. of carbohydrates. Ac¬ 
cording to the feeding standards, for a milch cow 
a ration with 1 lb. albuminoids to 5.4 carbohydrates 
will be appropriate, while an ox at rest in the stall 
will do well with only 1 lb. albuminoids to 12 lbs. 
carbohydrates. The best hay will serve well for 
making milk, while the straw has not enough of the 
albuminoids and fats to make it a proper food for 
even store cattle. There is a great difference between 
Good and Poor Hay. 
Upland hay cut during the period from early 
blossom to full blossom is easily digestible, and has 
a good percentage of albuminoids. But as it grows 
older the proportion of nitrogen decreases, and 
that of woody fibre grows larger, the hay becomes 
less digestible, the digested material is poorer be¬ 
cause it lacks albuminoids, and finally the old hay 
is not so palatable. For all these reasons the late 
cut hay is worth far less for feeding. Grass grown 
on rich soil is richer in albuminoids than on poor 
soil. Marsh and bog hays lack albuminoids and 
fats. Clover, timothy, red-top, blue-grass, and 
the like, grown on good soil, cut early and well 
cured and housed, make excellent fodder. Poorly 
manured, cut late, and badly cured, they are very 
poor stuff. Much of the hay that lies in the barns all 
through the country is very little better than straw. 
The "Way to Use these Poor Foods 
economically then must be to supply what they 
lack. To make boots of neck or split leather, or to 
throw the poor leather away, would be bad economy. 
With good leather for the parts where the wear 
comes, the poor leather may be used for backs 
and linings, and thus be made valuable. So we 
may feed straw, corn-stalks, and over-ripe or marsh 
hay to advantage, provided we put other foods 
with them to supply the albuminoids and fats. 
Now note in the table the figures for clover, bran, 
beans, peas, oil-cake, meat-scraps and dry ground 
fish. They have very little carbohydrates, but are 
rich in albuminoids and fats. 
Cotton-Seed Meal, Linseed Meal, Palm-Nut 
Meal, and Bran, 
are foods whose value farmers in this country are 
just beginning to appreciate. European farmers 
long since found out how much they are worth, and 
thousands of tons of American oil-cake and meal 
have been carried across the Atlantic to enrich 
English, French and German foods and soils. The 
time has come when we must keep them at home if 
we are going to redeem our farming. The great value 
of these foods is due to two facts. First, they sup 
ply the albuminoids and fats in which poor hay, 
straw, corn-6talks and the like are lacking. Second, 
they make rich manure. How they may be used 
with poor foods to make good rations at small cost 
is illustrated in the fodder rations in last month’s 
article. Chemistry indicates, experiments prove, 
and experience corroborates the principles that 
poor foods, as late cut hay, marsh hay, straw, corn¬ 
stalks, etc., can be utilized and made very valuable 
by feeding with them nitrogenous foods such as oil- 
meal, bran, and clover hay, to supply what they 
lack. It is proved that 6uch mixtures make the 
very best rations; and still further, that this is 
one of the cheapest ways to get good manure. 
Dried Blood, Meat Scrap and Fish as Food 
for Stock. 
Years ago, oil-cake used to be employed as a fer¬ 
tilizer. Chemistry said it ought to be first fed to 
stock, that it has a high nutritive value, that in 
going through the animal machine but little of the 
valuable material is consumed, and that the resi¬ 
due is worth more for manure than before. Ex¬ 
perience proved that all this is true, and now no¬ 
body would think of using linseed-cake or cotton¬ 
seed meal for manure. Of late, immense quantities 
of 6laughter-house refuse, dried blood, dried intes¬ 
tines, and the like, and still larger quantities of the 
refuse left after the extraction of oil from fish, are 
being prepared and used as fertilizers. These ought, 
like the oil-cake, to be first utilized for food. The 
idea, though novel to most farmers, is an old one, 
and has been put into successful practice in many 
places. In its favor is the unanimous testimony of 
chemical composition, careful experiments, and the 
experience of farmers who have used the materials 
with success. Against it are, the difficulty of pre¬ 
paring wholesome materials, which can be over¬ 
come. and the prejudice that only time and trial 
are needed to dispel.* 
The Manurial Values of Nitrogenous Foods 
is a matter worthy the thoughtful consideration of 
farmers. Nitrogen, Phosphoric Acid, and Potash 
are the most valuable ingredients of manure. Farm¬ 
ers buy them in the better kinds of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers at the rate of from fifteen to thirty cents per 
pound for nitrogen, six to eighteen cents per pound 
for phosphoric acid, and three and a half to nine 
cents per pound for potash. Cotton-seed, linseed, 
and palm-nut meals, bran, dried blood, meat- 
scrap, and fish, are rich in these ingredients. 
Mr. Lawes has made some calculations of the money 
values of the manures produced from different 
foods. This he does by assuming that certain per¬ 
centages of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
are consumed and lost, that the rest go into the 
manure, and that they have there about the same 
value, pound for pound, as similar ones in com¬ 
mercial fertilizers in which their value is pretty 
well settled. I give Mr. Lawes’ estimates of the 
value of manure from a number of foods, and with 
them the feeding values, as estimated by Wolff, per 
table in December Amcincan Agriculturist, page 497. 
FEEDING VALUE. MANURIAL VALUE. 
Cotton-seed Cake . 
Wolff. 
.$41.40 per ton. 
La 
$27.86 
Linseed Cake. 
. 34.40 
19.72 
Beans. 
.. 15.20 
15.73 
Wheat Bran. 
. 20.80 
14.59 
Clover Hay. 
. 14.00 
9.64 
Indian Meal. 
.. 22.20 
6.63 
Meadow Hay. 
. 12.80 
6.43 
Oat Straw. 
. 9.00 
2.90 
Potatoes. 
.. 5.80 
1.50 
Turnips. 
Meat Scrap. 
. 2.20 “ 
.86 
.. 55.60 
— 
Dry Ground Fish.. 
. 46.00 
-1- 
Mr. Lawes rates the ingredients pretty high and 
probably allows too little for loss in passing through 
the animal and in the keeping and handling of the 
manure. Wolff’s rates doubtless require modifica¬ 
tion for our markets, and the actual worth of the 
nitrogenous food stuffs would come up to the 
valuations only where they are properly used with 
other foods. W. O. Atwater. 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 
* For discussion of the subject, and accounts of numer¬ 
ous feeding experiments with these materials, see article 
on The Agricultural Uses of Fish, in Report of U. S. Fish 
Commission for 1877, and in “ American Fisheries ” 
(Orange Judd Company, New York, 18S0), page 258. 
