142 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
and young clover excepted, hay, as commonly made, is hardly rich 
enough in easily digestible albuminoids to serve the best possible pur- 
pose as a production ration when used by itself. It needs to be 
re-enforced by some slight addition of a richer kind of food. Hay of 
average quality, is well fitted, it is true, for maintaining animals from 
which no very large amount of milk or flesh or other product is ex- 
pected. That is to say, by feeding them with hay alone, the animals 
may be made to produce moderate amounts of milk or of work, or even 
to become partially fattened; but, as is well known, something more 
than ordinary hay is needed for obtaining a really abundant yield of 
the products in question. 
. A somewhat similar remark will apply to Indian corn as to young 
pasture grass, though in a contrary sense. ‘The average proportion of 
albuminoids to carbohydrates in maize is as 1 to 7 or 1 to 8 
which would go to show that this kind of grain is neither rich 
enough in albuminoids to be used by itself to the best chemical advan- 
tage, nor well fitted to be used, as it so often is, by our farmers, to “re- 
enforce ” other kinds of food that are in themselves poor in albuminoids. 
There is no need to urge, in this country, that maize has many com- 
mendable qualities. Its richness in oil and starch; its easy digestibility 
when crushed or ground, or swollen by soaking or scalding ; its cheap- 
ness ; its palatableness to all kinds of stock; and the excellent quality 
of the beef or pork that have been fed with it, — are too well known to 
be commented upon. But the chemical composition of the grain, as 
well as practical experience in feeding animals, shows that maize taken 
by itself is better adapted for fattening adult animals, or for finishing 
the fattening, than for rearing young animals or for producing milk, | 
There is good reason to believe that, except for fattening swine of a 
certain age and weight, maize should by good rights be mixed with 
some other more highly nitrogenized food, in order that its constituents 
may be thoroughly utilized; and there is every reason to believe, also, 
that maize is by no means so well adapted for re-enforcing rough 
forage as a number of cheap foods that are more highly nitrogenized. 
In considering whether our farmers have been accustomed to use 
their Indian corn to the best possible pecuniary advantage, it should be 
understood clearly that the question of thoroughly utilizing each of 
the chemical constituents of a food need not necessarily coincide with 
that of the most economical use of the food. The fattening of hogs 
