The Advocate and news., 1898-09-14
Agricultural College Notes.
VALUE OF NEW FEEDSTUFF

VALUE OF NEW FEEDSTUFFS
During the last year Prof COttrell, OF
the Kansas Agricultural College, has
had numerous calls from cattle feeders
of the State to send them tables Of "bal-
anced ratiOns." In order to compile
such tables 1t is necessary to know the
digestibility Of the various feeding
stuffs. But this has not been determined
for some of the principal Kansas feeds,
such as alfalfa, prairie hay and Kaflr
corn. There have been some determine
tiOns made on alfalfa, but they differ so
widely as to render their use impracti-
cable. The chemical and agricultural
departments of the college have been
conducting digestion experiments upon
the abOve-named feeds for some time
and the results will be published in
bulletins some time during the winter.
Watch for them. r. w. G.
GOOD TO MAKE MILK.
Mr.. II. s. Hurd, secretary and mana
ger Of the American Creamery Co., at
Meriden, Kas., is making some practical
experiments with feeding stuffs for
dairy cows. The most essential quality
Of a food especially adapted to milk
producing purposes is high percentage
OF protein. Mr.. Hurd is having his
feeding stufrs anaIyzed and when he
has found the one which will furnish
the greatest amount of protein In pro-
portion to It's cost, he will buy 1t In
wholesale lots and sell 1t to his custom
ers at cost, hoping thereby to greatly
improve the quantity of the milk which
they bring him. He recently sent
specimen Of wheat germ to the Agricul
tural College for analysis, which was
found to contain 31A per cent. Of pro-
tein. He can furnish this at $12 per
ton, which, when compared with linseed
meal at $22 per ton (the price quoted to
him), Is q much cheaper feeding stun
than the latter, provided It's digestibility
Is equal to that Of the llnseed meal.
D. INoCULATING SOY BEAN LAND.
Field experiments started last spring
to study practical methods Of inoculat-
ing large fields with the nodule-produc-
ing bacterium Of the soy bean have pro-
duced some interesting results. InOCu-
latiOn was tried on large scale in the
following ways: Dipping the seed to
be planted in water that had been mixed
with the inoculated soil; dipping the
seed In mud made from inoculated soil;
mixing inOculated soil with the seed
and drilling 1t In, while varying the
amount Of soil used; broadcasting diff
ferent amounts Of lnOculated soils before
and after the beans have been drilled.
With the soil we used for inOculation
Che only method that produced the root
. kae1tov.niae 10 hn ~
mixing the inoculated soil with the seed
and with this method even where six
pecks Of soil per acre were used, the
nodules were not very numerous. The
other methods all showed inOculatiOn
60 slight extent These experiments
give further proof that for the best re-
suits the soil containing the bacteria
y must be put close to the plants or seeds
and in considerable quantity. Our soil
used for incubation was from plat
that had been inoculated two years ago
and where soy beans have been grown
ever since. The bacteria here are stead
lily increasing and spreading through
the SOIL but only slowly, and are not
numerous at this time. All our methods
OF incubation would have given more
pronounced results IL we could have
used soil where the bacteria had been
cultivated longer and become more nu-
merous. So with any Of the methods,
time and expense will be saved and more
rapid progress will be made with the
inoculation by thoroughly inoculating a
small area and using from this for fur
ther incubation, than by putting a
smattering over large area, as all our
experiments show that the bacteria
spread very slowly through the soil
and will have to become quite numerous
before the winds will aid very much in
dissemination.