158 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
more or less disagreeable flavor. But it will furnish that which will help to 
make flesh, fat, and bone, and that is the greater desideratum generally.” 
The practicability of using fish scrap would seem to be completely 
proved by the foregoing very explicit and satisfactory statements, not 
to dwell upon ‘the corroborative European experience with both fish 
and flesh, of which mention was just now made. The only point to be 
insisted upon is the necessity, in order to avoid danger to the animals, 
of having the refuse matters salted or smoked or pressed or dried in 
such wise that they shall be preserved from putrefaction. But there 
would be no great difficulty in doing this; and it will be done, doubt- 
less, the moment our farmers begin to make any general inquiry for 
meat-feed. 
Much attention has been given of late, by the agricultural chemists 
of Europe, to the question of the comparative digestibility of the vari- 
ous constituents of different kinds of fodder ; and many experiments, in 
feeding animals and analyzing their food and their excretions, have 
been made to that end. ‘This subject, also, is one of very great impor- 
tance, that. needs to be studied by our farmers in due course.* But, 
in the present state of popular knowledge in this country, it seems 
necessary, first of all, to lay special stress upon the great general con- 
ception of the complementary character of different kinds of foods. If 
that conception were once clearly grasped by practical men, and the 
habit acquired of applying the idea to the details of actual farm prac- 
tice, it would be a comparatively easy matter for the farmer to pass 
forward to the consideration of the additional or supplementary, and 
perhaps still more important, question, as to which of the various 
fodders are the more or the less digestible among their respective 
kinds. 
I have purposely chosen a number of old examples for illustrating 
the foregoing remarks, in the belief that it is easier to gain knowl- 
edge by contemplating the practices of our predecessors than by dis- 
puting special errors that are still in vogue. 
* It has been expounded already, in a very able manner, by Professor At- 
water in a number of papers in the “ American Agriculturist ” for 1875 and 
1876. 
