lOO AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Ques. Do you think we would get better results from gluten 

 feed than from cottonseed ? 



Ans. That is one of the problems the feeder has to work out. 

 We cannot feed all cows alike. They have individual charac- 

 teristics the same as people. Some cows will do better on one 

 feed than on another of about the same quality. It is difficult 

 to make any hard and fast rules. There is no other source from 

 which you can buy protein of as good quality as in cottonseed 

 meal. I do not mean to say that cottonseed meal will give you 

 better results than gluten meal, if fed alone ; probably it will 

 not, but I think you can find as many dairymen that have ob- 

 tained good results with a combination of cottonseed meal, corn 

 meal and bran as with a gluten feed. 



Ones. In examining molasses feeds did you ever discover 

 any weed seeds ground up? 



Ans. Nearl}' all that we have examined have contained large 

 amounts of weed seeds. In the first of these feeds that came 

 into the State these weed seeds had not been destroyed. Then 

 they were certainly pernicious feeds, but there has been so 

 much criticism made that now the best manufacturers of 

 molasses feeds claim that they have ground all the weed seeds 

 or killed them by heat, so they will not germinate. Weed seeds 

 contain protein, but as to their value we cannot say. All pro- 

 teins are not alike, nor are all nitrogen compounds. The nitro- 

 gen compounds in weed seeds may not all be proteids and if 

 not they would not have any value as a protein food. 



Ones. Don't you think that feeders many times feed the cows 

 too much grain, more than they require, so that there is prac- 

 tically a waste? 



Ans. I am sure of it. I went into a man's barn once when 

 cottonseed meal was very low, — selling for S23 and $24 a ton, 

 and I found he was feeding four quarts of cottonseed meal at 

 a feed to his cows. He had worked them up to that gradually 

 so they could stand it, but it was certainly a great waste of the 

 protein for an ordinary cow. 



