140 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
ing live weight at the rate of } lb. per day on a ration of 7 or 
8 lbs. of potatoes and a dozen or more quarts of skim-milk. 
In this connection, I would cite the following remarks from Mr. 
Colman’s “ Fourth Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts,” Boston, 
1841, p. 56, relating to the fattening of cattle in the western part of 
this State previous to 1840. 
“The stall feeding of cattle is carried on to a large extent in the 
river towns (of Franklin county) and to some extent in the hill towns. 
In the hill towns, they are usually fatted upon potatoes ; in which case 
it is not uncommon to tie them in the barn and allow them a bushel 
[sixty pounds | of well-washed potatoes per day, given at two or more 
different times, with as much hay as they will consume, and allowing 
them no water. One farmer who approves highly of potatoes as feed 
for fattening stock deems four bushels to be fully equal to one bushel 
of corn. He gives as many as the cattle will bear, and this varies from 
one to two bushels per day... . The quantity of the hay which 
cattle consume under these circumstances, he does not deem important, 
and thinks the straw of grain will do nearly as well as hay. . . The 
value of potatoes is differently estimated by different individuals ; 
some considering five bushels, others rating four bushels, as equivalent 
to one bushel of corn.” 
It is manifest that a small addition of oil-cake to these excessively 
farinaceous rations would have been meritorious, and it should be said 
that Mr. Colman found one or two farmers, but no more, in the locality 
here in question, who were of the opinion that oil-cake is of great 
value for fattening cattle. 
It is to be observed that the foregoing cases, though extreme, are not 
exceptional. Similar examples might be adduced in respect to almost 
any other article of food. For the researches of chemists have shown 
not only that all kinds of foods and fodders may be regarded as be- 
longing to one or the other of two great general classes, — viz., the 
albuminous or flesh-like foods on the one hand, and those that are 
comparatively rich in carbohydrates on the other, — but that from the 
chemical point of view no single one of them is perfect in itself or 
adapted to all kinds of cases. Provided labor were cheap, and the 
several different kinds of foods were equally accessible, there would be 
found very few cases indeed where the best economic results could be 
got by the use of one single kind of fodder. No matter what the 
