94 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
practiced throughout the State. These facts, taken together with 
the shortness of the periods of observation to which the herds 
were subjected, have been kept in mind in the Lee discussion 
of the results of the tests. 
The two chief uses of food are to form the materials of the 
body and make up its wastes, and to yield energy in the form of 
heat to keep the body warm, and furnish muscular and other 
power for the work it has to do. In forming the tissues and 
fluids of the body, the food serves for building and repair. In 
yielding energy it serves as fuel. The different nutrients of food 
act in different ways in accomplishing this purpose. The: prin- 
cipal tissue formers are the protein compounds. They build up 
and repair the nitrogenous materials, as the muscle and bone, and 
supply the albuminoids of blood, milk, and other fluids. The 
chief fuel ingredients of the food are the carbohydrates and fat. 
These are either consumed in the body or are stored as fat to be 
used as occasion demands. As the protein compounds are the 
flesh formers, and since the chief function of the fats and carbo- 
hydrates is to furnish heat and muscular strength which may be 
measured by their potential energy or fuel value, it is possible to. 
form a very good idea of the nutrients furnished in different ra- 
tions by comparing the quantities of digestible protein and amounts 
of potential energy which the digestible nutrients of rations furnish. 
It will be seen from table 30 that the smallest weight of di- 
gestible protein fed per day per 1,000 pounds live weight, was 
1.35 pounds, and the largest amount was 3.16 pounds. The 
potential energy or fuel value of the digestible nutrients fed 
per 1,000 pounds live weight, varied from a minimum of 28,750 
calories to a maximum of 42,600 calories. There was also a 
correspondingly large range in the nutritive ratio of the rations 
fed. The narrowest ration had the ratio of 1: 4.5, the widest, of 
‘See Ree | 
A RATION FOR A MILCH COW. 
Every little while we are in receipt of letters something like 
this: ‘I should like to know, in plain, simple language, what is 
the best way for profit, to feed a cow of 1000 pounds live weight.” 
Unfortunately such a question can at present be answered only 
approximately. 
A proper daily ration will supply in appropriate forms, the 
protein needed to form the nitrogenous materials of the body 


3, 
& 
By 
Ks. 
