

A STUDY OF RATIONS FED TO MILCH COWS. I15 
Daily Ration per r000 Pounds Live Weight Actually Fed to Herd 
_ Wo. 16, and Suggested Rations. 









AS FED, SUGGESTED CHANGES. 
RATION No. 16. ae fa 
: Ay B. C: 
Comm meal, - - - - 3.1 pounds. | 2.0 pounds.| T.o pounds, 
Wheat bran, - - - 1.7 pounds.| 6.0 pounds.| 3.0 pounds, 
Buffalo gluten feed,  - - 2.1 pounds. | 4.0 pounds. 5.0 pounds, 
O. P. linseed meal, - - —- 2.0 pounds. | 2.5 pounds. 
Hay, - : > 5 + | T4.2) pounds, “a5 6.0 pounds. 
Poor hay, - - - - | 3.8 pounds.| 6.0 pounds.| 3.0 pounds. 
Stover, - = - - |’ 3/3 “pounds, | 7.0 “pounds. | 8.0) pounds. 
Digestible protein, - - | 1.45 pounds.; 2.50 pounds. | 2.50 pounds. 
Fuel value, - - - - | 29,600 calories.| 31,000 calories.| 31,000 calories. 
Nutritive ratio, 1: = - | 9-3 5.6 5.6 
Gest of tation, —- = - 23° Q) Cents: 22.0 -cents, 23.6 cents, 


As stated at the commencement of this paper, the studies here 
reported upon were undertaken as the beginning of an investiga- 
tion into the feeding practices and the characters of the dairy 
herds of Connecticut. The investigation is being continued dur- 
ing the present winter, and it is expected that full accounts of 
the later results will be printed in the Annual Report of this 
Station for 1894. 
It is our belief that the results thus far obtained merit the 
careful consideration of dairy farmers. ‘The subject of cattle 
feeding and handling is a large one, and only general principles 
can be advanced. No hard and fast rules for feeding are now 
known, and doubtless none ever will be known. It is nevertheless 
true that the man who exercises the largest amount of good 
judgment, based upon all that the most advanced science can 
bring to him, and who tries to put into practice the knowledge 
thus acquired, will be on the much surer road to success than 
one who works blindly. There may be no “best” breed, no 
“best” ration, and no “best”? way of handling dairy stock, 
yet there are bad sides to all three questions, and the man who 
learns to avoid the bad is well on the road toward the best. 
