20.00
Phosphoric Acid. 8.72

The results of these analyses show that dry furze contains an amount
of nutriment equal to that found in dry grass. The nature of its
composition resembles, as might be expected, that of its allied plants,
vetches, &c., and therefore it exceeds the grasses in its amount of
ready formed fatty matter.

SECTION IV.

STRAW AND HAY.

_Straw._--At the present time, when the attention of the farmer is
becoming more and more devoted to the production of meat, it is very
desirable that his knowledge of the exact nutritive value of the various
feeding substances should be more extensive than it is. No doubt, most
feeders are practically acquainted with the relative value of corn and
oil-cake--of Swedish turnips and white turnips; but their knowledge of
the food equivalents of many other substances is still very defective.
For example, every farmer is not aware that Indian corn is a more
economical food than beans for fattening cattle, and less so for beasts
of burthen. Locust-beans, oat-dust, malt-combings, and many other
articles, occasionally consumed by stock, have not, as yet, determinate
places assigned to them in the feeder's scale of food equivalents.

The points involved in the economic feeding of stock are not quite
so simple as some farmers, more especially those of the amateur
class, appear to believe. There are many feeders who sell their
half-finished cattle at a profit, and yet they cannot, without loss,
convert their stock into those obese monsters which are so much
admired at agricultural shows. The complete fattening of cattle is
a losing business with some feeders, and a profitable one with others.
Stall-feeding is a branch of rural economy which, perhaps more than any
other, requires the combination of "science with practice;" yet how few
feeders are there who have the slightest knowledge of the composition of
food substances, or who are agreed as to the feeding value, absolute or
relative, of even such well-known materials as oil-cake, straw, or oats!
"It is thus seen how inexact are the equivalents which are understood to
be established for the different foods used for the maintenance of the
animals. It is equally plain, when we reflect on the different methods
pursued for the preservation of the animals, that we are still far
from having attained that perfection towards which our effor