132 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE). 



WHEAT OFFAES. 



Now we come to a class of feeds which we used to say we 

 always must have, but I do not see how we can use them freely 

 at present prices, and those are the wheat milling offals. Take 

 wheat bran, which contains 12.6 per cent digestible protein, 

 37.5 carbohydrates and 3.2 fat which is equivalent to 7.2 carbo- 

 hydrates, making 44.7 per cent carbohydrates. At the same 

 prices at which we have been figuring, it would be worth $22.70 

 a ton, and it costs $30. The story with wheat middlings is not 

 as bad. Wheat middlings carry considerable starch, and they 

 would figure out $29 and will cost $30 for brown and $32 for 

 white. So one could continue to use wheat middlings 

 without being as reckless as when using wheat bran. We 

 have today not only wheat bran but adulterated wheat 

 bran. We have some on the market which, instead of 

 carrying 15 or 16 per cent of protein, is guaranteed to carry 

 only 12 per cent, and the little card that goes with it tells you 

 that it is made up in part of ground corn cobs. The quotations 

 from Portland place these goods, at wholesale, at $1.00 a ton 

 higher than spring wheat bran, and they are being sold in Maine 

 and men who have cows are feeding this ! This material is 

 worth about $22 on the basis we have used, and adding one- 

 fourth corn cobs pulls it down to about $17, and farmers are 

 paying the price of wheat bran for that ! 



Dr. Smead. I thought the wheat middlings were adulterated 

 with terra alba and with corn cobs. 



Ans. We have not found them so in Maine, but we may. 

 It usually takes longer for the new adulterants to reach us. 

 They are generally reported from the New Jersey or the Con- 

 necticut Station before they appear up here in Maine. We have 

 not yet found goods of this kind, but if they are on the market 

 they will probably reach us. We will try to look out for them 

 when they come. 



THE COST OF PROTEIN IN DIFFERENT FEEDS. 



Suppose we wish to do what I have told you in times past you 

 ought to do when you purchased grain, — buy the protein. Let 

 us look for a moment at the feeds in the market with this in 

 mind, neglecting all the other constituents. What does crude 

 protein cost per pound in these different feeds? 



