42 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
RATIONS FED BY THIRTY-TWO CONNECTICUT DAIRYMEN IN 
FORTY-FIVE TESTS UMADE “BY THE so LATION: 
During the past five seasons forty-five rations found in actual 
use or proposed by the Station have been studied. 
The experiments of the last four seasons—1893-94, 1894-95, 
1895-96, and 1896-97—include thirteen cases in which com- 
parative tests were made by feeding two different rations in 
succession to the same herd, in the manner described above, 
pages 17 and 18. In each case the ration actually being fed 
at the time was determined by weighing the feeding stuffs on 
the spot as they were fed and taking samples for analysis, 
and at the same time weighing the milk of each cow and deter- 
mining the percentage of butter-fat. As soon as new rations 
could be calculated another ration was made with a larger pro- 
portion of protein, and a second test was made with this new 
ration, the fodder and milk being weighed and analyzed as 
before. In twelve of the cases the second ration was narrower 
than the first; in one instance the first ration was compara- 
tively narrow, and the change was mainly from more to less 
expensive food materials. The length of each test was twelve 
days. ‘The interval between the two tests of each comparative 
trial was from two to four weeks in the seven comparative 
experiments of 1893-94 and 1894-95, nine days in the two of 
1895-96, and two weeks in 1896-97. 
The results of these twenty-six comparative tests with thir- 
teen herds are summarized in table 10 on page 63. ‘The rations 
fed each herd in the different tests, the cost of the rations, the 
daily milk and butter product, and the cost of food to produce 
1oo pounds of milk and one pound of butter, are given in such 
a way that the results from the two rations can be easily com- 
pared. In the case of one herd (D) malt sprouts were fed in 
the second test and were not well eaten by most of the cows. 
In the case of herd G, the two rations were alike in the weights 
and proportions of nutrients. On this account the results with 
these two herds are omitted from the averages. | 
A brief discussion of these comparative tests and the conclu- 
sions reached will be found on page 61 and following. 
In the following table are summarized the statistics of the 
forty-five rations studied. The table is for convenience divided 
into two parts. On the left hand pages of the table will be 
