New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 95 
RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF THE RATIONS FOR DUCKLINGS. 
The ration containing the animal meal was more freely eaten. 
Calculated on the basis of dry matter the food consumed by Lot 
A during the first four weeks was more than twice as much as 
that by Lot B and the net gain in weight more than ten times as 
great. For each pound gain in weight there were 2.6 pounds of 
dry matter in the food for Lot A and 6 pounds for Lot B. 
During the following five weeks 40 per ct. more food was con- 
sumed by Lot A than by Lot B and the gain in weight made by 
Lot A was more than twice that made by Lot b. The amount 
of dry matter in the food for each pound gain was 3.6 pounds for 
Lot A and 4.8 pounds for Lot B. For the nine weeks over 50 
per ct. more food was consumed by Lot A and the total net gain 
in weight was 2.7 times more than that of Lot Bb. There were 
3.3 pounds of dry matter in the food for Lot A for each pound 
gain in weight and 5 pounds for Lot B. 
When the birds remaining in Lot B were finally changed to 
the ration that had been fed to Lot A a-rapid growth was made 
and while the gains were not so good as had been previously 
made by Lot A they were better than those made at this time by 
the more nearly mature birds in Lot A during three weeks 
feeding on the same ration. or the five weeks there were 5.1 
pounds of dry matter in the food for Lot B for each pound gain 
in weight and for the three weeks for Lot A 7.4 pounds for each 
pound gain in weight. It was therefore apparent that while 
the vegetable food rAtion greatly retarded the growth up to ten 
weeks of age and was the cause of great mortality, it did not pre- 
vent a rapid and profitable growth by the surviving birds under 
the better ration. The effect of the first few weeks under the 
inferior ration could not be entirely overcome however, and the 
birds from Lot B never reached as satisfactory development as 
did the others. 
RELATIVE ECONOMY OF THE RATIONS FOR DUCKLINGS. 
The cost of the food for each pound gain in weight during the 
first four weeks of the experiment was for Lot A 2.7 cents and 
