St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-12
BEST EOR STOCK.
heterogeneous Food Shown by Ex-
periments to Be the Best for
Weight.

heterogeneous Food Shown by Ex-
periments to Be the Best for
Weight.
Corn is considered the cheapest food
that can be fed, but it is doubtful if corn
is profitable if the value of the corn-tOd-
der be taken from the crop. Farmers,
however: have firm faith in the advan-
tageS of corn as a weight producer, and
as long as corn is staple crop it will
hold a place in the farmers estimation.
But the value of any kind of grain does
not depend upon It's cost, nor upon
the advantages of feeding it with facil-
ity, but upon the product derived from
its use. So many experiments have
been recently made with view of de-
termining the relative gain from the use
of heterogeneous and carbOnaceOuS foods
that the results of test with lambs by
Prof. Roberts will throw light on the
matter, and probably point out some of
the mistakes that are occasionally made.
GROWTH OF LAMBS ON DIFFERENT
FOODS.
Four lots of lambs, ordinary grades.
were fed by Prof. Roberts. to determine
the cost and ratio of increase from diff
ferent foods, not only of the carcass, but
of the wool also. From November to
April-five monthS-the lambs were
given quite Il variety. The four lots
contained three lambs each. One lot
was fed on a carbonaceous diet, having
all the whole corn and timothy hay they
could eat, with half pound of roots
each, the estimated cost of the food be-
ing S2.70, Another lot was given food
of a heterogeneous character, consisting of
233 pounds bran, 100 pounds cOttOnseed
meal, 312 pounds clover and 100 pounds
roots, the cost being 1896. The other
lots were fed on mixed heterogeneous
foods, for comparison with the first two
lots. A remarkable result was that the
lambs fed on heterogeneous foods drank
much more wafer than the others,
nearly four times as much. While the
cost of the carbOnaceOuS food was So. 70
less than that of the food of the other
lot $3.50, the gain from the carbona-
ceOuS food in the five months was 1915
pounds, the gain from the heterogeneous
foods 1871 pounds, the cost of the gain
from the earbOnaceOus food $3.50, and
the cost of the gain from the nitroge-
nous food S6.03. The increase of wool
was also in favor of heterogeneous food,
the first lot shearing 4.25 pounds and
the second 7.31 pounds, or an increase
of ~ per cent in ia or of the nitrOge-
nous foods.
THE RESULTS SHOWN.
1t may be noticed that though the
carbOnaceOus food (cOrn, timothy and
roots) cost but 1870, the cost of gain in
weight from such food was S7.59, as the
lambs so fed only gained 1878 pounds.
and that though the heterogeneous food
(bran, cOttOnseed meal, clover hay and
roots cost S4.66. the cost of the gain
was only 1903. as they gained 1871
pounds in weight. The experiment
showed that though the carbOnaceous
food could be procured in the market
for less than the heterogeneous food,
yet it costs more than a cent and
a half a pound to put a pound of
gain on lambs that are fed on the car
bonaceous food than with the use of the
heterogeneous. Still another factor en-
tiers for comparison. The manurial
values of the heterogeneous food was
1886. while the manurial value of the
carbOnaceOus food was only 81. II. From
that it may be seen that the cheapest
food lin price, may be the more costly
compared with some other food when
the final results are obtained, and that
it is not economic TO rely on fattening
(carbenaceous) foods entirely if rapid
gain in weight is desired.