Convention— Principles of Stock Feeding. 153 
and in the pure clover, with its o.G pounds, there was a waste. 
Part of this waste was due to the ad libitum foddering, but a part 
was due to the unnecessarily lar^e amount of albuminoids in the 
green clover.” 
This experiment confirms what I have been stating, that there 
must needs be in cattle food a definite relation between the quan¬ 
tity of digestible albuminoids and carbohydrates, 1 of the former to 
5^- of the latter, in order that the greatest returns may be obtained 
from the food given, and it also shows that too much food may be 
given to cows, the limit being the powers of digestion and conver¬ 
sion of the food into useful products. 
There is but one other point bearing upon this very broad sub¬ 
ject of the economical feeding of stock, to which I can allude in 
the time allotted me. It is the saving of food by protecting animals 
from the cold and the storms of our somewhat rigorous climate. In 
a paper read by me before the Northwestern Dairymen’s Association 
in 1873, on “ Feeding, Watering and Sheltering Stock,” this question 
was more fully discussed than it would be proper to do on the pres¬ 
ent occasion. But it should never be forgotten by dairymen that 
the maintenance of their cows at a temperature of 98° F. is not a 
matter of choice with them. Nature will keep the system at this 
temperature as long as healthful life remains, and if the food fur¬ 
nished is not sufficient to maintain it, the fat and muscle of the an¬ 
imal will be consumed for tha,t purpose. The maintaining of ani¬ 
mal heat, and the formation of useful products are processes directly 
opposed to each other. 
One is carried on at the expense of the other. Both are supplied 
from the food digested. But the same food cannot perform both 
offices, and only the amount not required to maintain the animal 
temperature can be converted into useful products. It follows con¬ 
sequently, that the greatest amount of milk can be obtained from 
a given quantity of food, only when the animal requires the small¬ 
est portion for maintaining its temperature. Protection from storms, 
then, and keeping cows in warm stalls, are equivalent to supplying 
them with a'greater quantity of food, and he who does these most 
effectually, other conditions remaining the same, will produce the 
cheapest milk. 
Earl Ducie, of Whitfield farm, England, conducted the following 
experiment, to test the effectiveness of shelter. Two flocks of 
