46 GRAIN RATIONS FOR COWS. 

of the State Experiment Station at Copenhagen, and areport 
has been recently published on the results of the experiments 
conducted in 1898 and 1899, which were devoted mainly to the 
determination of the feeding value of mixed grain and maize 
respectively. In both these years Indian corn or maize was 
compared with barley and oats, the common grain feeds for 
milch cows in Denmark. Seven farms co-operated in the 
work, and furnished 264 cows in 1898 and 241 in 189g for the 
experiments. The rations of the cows during the preparatory 
and post-experimental periods were the regular rations given 
on the farms, the grain fed in all cases consisting of one-half 
barley and oats and one half maize. During the experi- 
mental period proper the cows were divided into three lots. 
Lot A received barley and oats only, while lot C received 
maize only, and lot B received the mixture of barley, oats, 
and maize. The maize and mixed grain were fed in equal 
quantities. In addition to these materials, all the lots 
received equal amounts of oil cake, mangolds, and hay, with 
straw ad libitum. The quantities of maize and mixed grain 
that replaced each other varied on the different farms from 
1.65 to 3.3lbs. daily per cow, and this constituted from one- 
half to two-thirds of the total ration of concentrated teed. 
The results obtained as regards the fat content of the milk 
showed only insignificant differences, on the average, for 
all the herds. The small differences were in favour of the 
mixed grain, but too small to have any practical importance, 
being within o.1 per cent. Ile same was true of the results 
of the complete chemical analyses. 
As regards the quantities of milk yielded by the different 
lots, the lots fed with maize only produced, on the average, 
slightly more milk. The production of butter fat was, how- 
ever, almost identical for the different lots, with a tendency 
to lower results for maize. 
The weighings made of the cows at the different periods of 
the experiment showed that the maize fed lots increased 
slightly more in live weight than the cows of either of the two 
other lots, the increase per head per day being 0°21, 0°25, and 
0°33 lb., for lots A, B, and C respectively. The consumption 
of straw was not influenced by the kind of grain fed. 
