
STANDARDS FOR RATIONS AND DIETARIES. 215 
lean or fat meat, or the largest amount of milk or butter-fat or 
enable the animal to do the largest amount of work from a given 
quantity of nutrients, is not always or generally the one which 
will bring the most profit to the feeder. In other words, the 
physiological standard may not be the most profitable formula 
for feeding. The factors of profit are numerous. One of the 
chief is the physiological action of the nutrients, but the cost of 
the food and the value of the product have to be taken into 
account. It may be to the feeder’s advantage to use a wide 
ration when a narrow one would give more yield for less raw 
material. There is a very wide difference in respect to the 
width of ration between the physiological standards as we now 
understand them and the actual feeding practice of most Ameri- 
can farmers, but it would be as wrong to advise them to conform 
exactly to the physiological standard as it would be to take the 
average of the practice of successful feeders, for either a physio- 
logical standard or a formula for profitable feeding. 
To find the formulas for feeding profitably two kinds of 
observation and experimenting are especially needed. ‘The first 
_ and simplest consists in accurate observation of the actual prac- 
tice of feeders and comparison of their methods of feeding with 
the. product. This is being done by the Storrs Station with 
results as described in the present: and previous Reports. The 
results thus far obtained are few and in no way remarkable, but 
they do represent the beginning of an inquiry which, if carried 
out for aseries of years and with a wider and wider range of 
animals, breeds and methods of feeding and with such constant 
improvement of method as experience suggests, cannot fail to 
bring useful results. The value of these results will be materi- 
ally increased if opportunity is taken, after observations have 
been made, to test the effect of changes in the feeding upon the 
product, as has been done in a small number of experiments 
detailed in the Reports referred to. We do not claim at all that 
the plan adopted by this Station is the best. What I do urge, 
and that with emphasis, is that the principle is a good one, that 
as the number of observations and experiments increase the 
value of the results will increase in still greater ratio; and that it 
is eminently desirable that a number of Stations should unite in 
work of this kind. Not only is it useful for learning the actual 
feeding practice of farmers and for working toward profitable 
feeding formulas, but it is preéminently valuable as a means of 
