The total shows the digestible matter required and the relative proportion of each constituent for the purpose of maintaining life, and the method above outlined represents the general nature of the investigation.

The advantage of knowing how much of albuminoids, carbohydrates, and fat is needed daily is this: If from any farm products, whether coarse fodder, grain, or meat products, the above amount can be obtained, such a combination can be reasonably expected to sustain life, and therefore in selecting the kind and amount of food necessary, we may rely upon these tables with reasonable certainty. In other words, the feeding tables are guides to good and economical feeding, and when supplemented by good judgment and close observation are sure to give much better results than can be attained by judgment alone. No man can afford to disregard the experience of careful men who have spent a lifetime in search for the laws which govern animal nutrition, and any farmer who regards his own limited experience as superior to that of hundreds who have spent their whole time in pursuit of the truth stands in his own light, because certainly no evil can result from accuracy in feeding, and the chances all favor an improvement by such accuracy.

Feeding tables are made up of two parts, one showing what a thousand-pound animal requires per day for each of the conditions in which such an animal may be placed, and the other shows the digestible or available nutrients contained in one hundred pounds of the various fodders, grains, and waste products available to the farmer and feeder. In all works on stock feeding the nutrients required are included under three heads,

namely, albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, including fiber, and fats; but it is well known that the value of the fat in a given food is always estimated as being 2.4 times as great as that of the sugar, starch, and fiber, and in estimating the "nutritive ratio" of a food the fat is always multiplied by 2.4 and added to the carbohydrates. This being true, I have found it much easier to arrange the nutrients in the feeding table under two heads, the albuminoids, and the carbo-hydrates, plus the fat, multiplied by 2.4. This gives equally accurate results and saves much perplexity in the use of the tables.

I have spoken of the nutritive ratio, or, as Warington says, the "albuminoid ratio," and as it is a matter of some importance I will define it: It is the ratio between the albuminoids and carbo-hydrates, plus the fat, multiplied by 2.4. For example, in the digestible constituents of clover hay already given we find albuminoids, 6 pounds, carbo-hydrates, 39.5 pounds, and fat, I pound. Now multiply this fat by 2.4 and it equals 2.4; added to the carbo-hydrates (39.5) equals 41.9 pounds, or the ratio is 6 of albuminoids to 41.9 carbo-hydrates, or as I to 7 nearly; this ratio, 1 to 7, is the nutritive ratio of this sample of clover hay.

Feeding Table Showing the Amount Required Daily by 1,000 Pounds of Live Weight of Animals.

This table is the one that must be consulted in finding what a given animal under various circumstances needs. Thus, an ox at absolute rest in a warm stall needs, to sustain life, albuminoids, 7 pounds; carbo-hydrates, etc., 8.32 pounds. An ox at work requires, albuminoids, 2.4 pounds; carbo-hydrates, etc., 14.4 pounds. This amount is for every one thousand pounds of live weight, and in order that we may supply these nutrient materials in their proper proportion, we must have a table showing digestible matter in one hundred pounds of our common fodders.

Table Showing Digestible Substance in Food, per One Hundred Pounds.

Now, with these two tables any farmer may feed his stock intelligently and with a feeling of certainty that the food used is adapted to their needs and that it is not wasted. Without their use a man may feed equally well, but he has no certainty that his results are the best possible, and for this reason, if for no other, I hope that farmers into whose hands this article may fall will

spend an hour extra in figuring out a ratio adapted to their work, and in comparing such a ratio with what they are to-day feeding. It cannot do any harm; it may do much good. The method of applying the tables may be best illustrated by an example. Suppose I want to feed a cow weighing nine hundred pounds on English hay, corn meal, and cottonseed, feeding for milk; by the table of requirements we see that a cow weighing one thousand pounds requires of albuminoids 2.5 pounds; carbohydrates, 13.5; but our cow weighs only nine hundred pounds. State the matter in a proportion as follows:

1,000: 900 :: 2.5: 2.25 pounds albuminoids required.

1,000:900 :: 13.5: 12.15 carbo-hydrates, etc., required.

Now, what mixture of English hay, corn meal, and cottonseed will give us the above amounts? As a rule, it is safe to start with one and one half per cent of live weight, of hay, or, in this case say, for convenience, twelve and one half pounds. In the second table we find the digestible material in one hundred pounds of hay, and as we have taken one eighth of a hundred pounds, the figures in the table must be divided by eight.

Now for all practical purposes the above is close enough to the standard, and would make a valuable ration for such a cow. The same method of figuring rations applies to all cases and is not difficult, although several trials may be necessary before the right combination is secured.

I have tried to point out the methods by means of which better and more rational stock feeding is to be attained, and I shall now give a few of the many rations adapted to milch cows. Milk of itself is a highly nitrogenous product. The following will give an average of the results of numerous analyses :

If we average this, as is done in the feeding table, we should have Albuminoids, 4.4 pounds; carbo-hydrates, plus fat, multiplied by 2.4, 12.9 pounds. This would give a nutritive ratio of 1 to 3 nearly, hence we should expect to furnish a food comparatively rich in albuminoids. Refer to the last article, and it will be seen that a cow giving milk requires food in which the digestible albuminoids are to the digestible non-albuminoids or carbohydrates, etc., as I to 5.4. The average cow will probably weigh not far from nine hundred pounds, and by the German tables it is found that such a cow would require daily the following digestible matter: Albuminoids, 2.25 pounds; carbohydrates, etc., 12.15 pounds. Now the question is this, Can we select average fodders from the farm in which this proportion can be obtained? In answer to this I should say that it is possible, but at the same time it is more profitable to purchase some concentrated food, rich in albuminoids, with which to make up the deficiency in our coarse fodders. Such foods can be obtained; for example, cottonseed meal, linseed meal, gluten meal, wheat bran, middlings, etc.

The only farm product capable of helping the farmer out with his coarse fodders is clover hay, and in the following ration it is used: