212 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
for the feeder. But it is extremely probable that in the great 
majority of cases something different from either will be really 
most advisable, and wherever either one of these formulas is not 
the most advantageous, it is the wrong one. Doubtless it will be 
better for any given farmer to follow almost any of the proposed 
formulas rather than to let his feeding be entirely haphazard. 
A wrong formula may be a great deal better than none. Feed- 
ing towards Wolff’s formulas has unquestionably been of im- 
mense advantage. The point I wish to urge is, that the right 
formula is the one that fits the individual case, and that the cases 
in which any given formula, be it that of Wolff, or of Kutihn, or 
of Woll, is actually the best, are the exceptions rather than the 
rule. 
THE PROPER SIGNIFICANCE OF FEEDING STANDARDS AND 
FORMULAS. 
This brings us to the kernel of the whole subject. What is a 
feeding standard? To answer this we must first of all avoid a 
confusion of terms which has become common. We must dis- 
tinguish between three different kinds of standards, or rather, 
since the word standard cannot be applied with equal propriety 
to all, we must distinguish between three different kinds of 
formulas which may be used to, express quantities and propor- 
tions of nutrients for feeding. These may be designated as the 
. physiological standard, the formula for profitable feeding, and the 
formula which expresses the actual practice of feeders. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL STANDARDS. 
The physiological standards would express the proportions of 
the different nutrients, protein, fats and carbohydrates which best 
fit the demands of the animal for the particular kind of product 
demanded of it, whether that product is growth, as in the case of 
young animals; or meat, as in the fattening of cattle, sheep and 
Swine; or milk, with milch cows; or work, as with horses and 
oxen. In all of these cases a certain amount of nutrients is re- 
quired for maintenance and a certain additional amount for pro- 
duction. ‘The functions of the several classes of nutrients in 
meeting the demands for maintenance and production have been 
more or less definitely shown by feeding experiments, and we 
have to-day, as the result of a great deal of experimenting, some- 
what of an idea of the relations between the physiological de- 
mands of an animal of a given class and fed for a given purpose 
