140 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



This is a good ration. The objection Hes in the purchasing 

 of all the grain. I believe every farmer can grow a part of 

 the grain he uses to advantage, supplementing that with some 

 of the rich protein foods like cottonseed meal. Not very many 

 years ago the purchasing of the small amount of protein cattle 

 foods used by the farmer was not a difificult task. There were 

 only a few on the market and with hardly an exception they 

 were reliable. Today we have a radical change. In the place of 

 a few good ones, we have hundreds of proprietary cattle feeds 

 grading all the way from oat hulls and ground corn-cob to 

 straight linseed and cottonseed meal. This condition has been 

 brought about by the manufacture of numerous things from the 

 original grain and having by-products left. In many cases these 

 by-products are valuable, as in the case of gluten feed, an oflfal 

 from the manufacture of glucose from corn. On the other hand 

 when oatmeal is manufactured for our breakfast, oat hulls are 

 left and they certainly are not valuable as a grain food to sup- 

 plement the coarse foods of the farm. I think with hardly an 

 exception, the legislators of the different states have recognized 

 these conditions and have passed laws regulating the sale of cat- 

 tle foods and compelling the branding of the guaranteed protein 

 on the sack in which these are sold. This is of great value to the 

 farmer. He should make use of the information about the dif- 

 ferent brands, which he can get from the Experiment Station 

 bulletins of all the prominent dairy states. I cannot speak as to 

 the conditions here, but the trouble in the State of New York is 

 that a good many farmers do not read the bulletins and have no 

 especial knowledge along these lines. When they go to the feed 

 store to purchase grain to supplement the home-grown fodder, 

 about the first question is about price and too often they pur- 

 chase the lower priced feed, knowing but little of its real value. 

 Such a feed often has oats hitched on to the name in some way, 

 and because the home-grown oats give good results, the buyer 

 thinks that the mixture must be good. It would be good if it 

 were oats ; the trouble is that in most cases the feeds are largely 

 oat hulls reinforced with some grain to give a little value but 

 as a rule the farmer pays much more for actual digestible food 

 than he would in the higher priced grain. When a farmer buys 

 grain the one thing he should have in mind is., what can I pur- 

 chase that, combined with my home-grown foods, will make a 



