

& STUDY OF RATIONS FED TO.MILCH COWS, 103 
As pointed out on page 100, the size of a ration can be conve- 
niently measured by its digestible protein and by the fuel value 
(potential energy) of its digestible nutrients. Since digestion 
factors are not so very different one from another, it follows that 
the weights of /ofa/ protein and the Zofa/ fuel values of different 
rations will serve the purpose of approximate comparisons. In 
table 33 the total nutrients, not the digestible nutrients, are 
given, 
In general, there seems to have been, as was to be expected 
with the class of farmers that we visited, considerable care exer- 
cised to insure regularity in times of feeding and amounts fed. 
With the exception of herds 1, 2, 3 and 9g, there were no larger 
variations in the amounts of grain fed from day to day than one 
mouceexpect,’ Ini some cases, notably’ 2)s) 69.7, 10, 117, 13) and 
16, the amounts of grain given from day to day were practically 
constant. In the case of these same herds there was for the 
most part a corresponding evenness in the daily milk flow and 
its content of butter-fat. This probably did not follow from the 
greater uniformity in feed any more than that of the care in gen- 
eral, as it would doubtless bé true that the man who is most care- 
ful in his feed would be careful in other particulars regarding his 
herd. In general the quantities of feed given were more uniform 
where a mixture was made of the grains and then all fed from one 
measurement than was the case where each grain was fed from 
a separate bin. The chief objection to feeding the grain in a 
mixture is that it does not allow as good opportunity for varying 
the feeds of different animals, as is the case when the grains are 
fed separately. If a careful person is attending to the feeding, 
and is trying to feed each animal properly, and is carefully 
watching the effects of the feed, the best results would doubtless 
be obtained by feeding the different grain feeds from separate 
bins. If hired help has to be depended upon, a grain mixture 
would, in most cases, prove to be the most satisfactory method 
of feeding grain. 
DISCUSSION OF RATIONS, 
In the following pages there are given in tabular form the 
kinds and amounts of the different feeding stuffs actually fed in 
the 16 herds studied by the Station in the winter of 1893, to- 
gether with the pounds of protein,*® the fuel value of the digest- 
ible nutrients, the nutritive ratio and the cost of the ration. 

* The terms protein, nutritive ratio, fuel value, etc., are explained on pages 93-100. 
