No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 575 



the increased production of cottonseed and of flaxseed, and finally 

 to more complete utilization of the refuse products as a result of the 

 manufacture of oat meal from oats. 



The character and composition, and frequently the palatability, of 

 these feeds are in a general way determined by the object of the 

 manufacturer of the original grain, whether to take from it one 

 of the important and highly digestible groups of nutrients, and 

 leave the others, or whether he takes the whole of the highly diges- 

 tible, and leaves the bulky and indigestible, the hull or husk. 



In the case of corn, the primary purpose is to remove from it as 

 near as may be, all of the starch that is contained in it, or but one 

 of the nutritive substances. Hence the total refuse product is 

 richer in protein and fat, and poorer in carbohydrates, than the 

 original corn, and thus from the standpoint of the feeder, a pound, 

 or a ton, of the entire refuse would be for feeding purposes, worth 

 more than the original corn, and inasmuch as the fat is corn-fat 

 and the protein is corn-protein, there is no known reason why these 

 actual food compounds should not be and every reason why they 

 {should be, quite as nutritious as in the original product. 



As already pointed out, however, nature has provided in the whole 

 grain good proportions of the pure nutrients, usually associated 

 with the crude fiber in such a way as to make it a difficult matter 

 to cause injury even from careless methods of feeding, while the 

 manufacturer on the other hand, removes more or less of one of 

 these nutrients, which, therefore, disturbs the proportions of the 

 constituents, and the resultant feed, decidedly unbalanced, must be 

 used more carefully, and with other products, if equally good results 

 are to be obtained. 



REFUSE FEEDS OF LOW VALUE. 



There is, however, a class of feeds which have been placed upon 

 the market in recent years, now large in number, and belonging to 

 that class which are not concentrated in the sense that one or more 

 of the highl}' digestible nutrients are contained in them, and which 

 can not, therefore, be said to have added to the source of supply of 

 desirable products, first, because they do not contain a class of nu- 

 trients that the farmer needs to purchase; and second, because the 

 substances themselves are not highlv useful. These are derived 

 mainly from the residues in the manufacture of oat meals, and con- 

 sist not of the richer portions of the grain as protein or fat, but of 

 the poorer portions, the outside hulls, and consisting more largely 

 of crude fiber than the original grain. That is, they contain very 

 low percentages of protein and fat, and very high percentages of 

 crude fiber. In fact, the oat hulls in themselves as a source of 

 nutrients, are no better, and not as good as straw and stalks, the 

 natural waste i)roducts of the farm. In this case, the object in 

 making a feed is to utilize a waste of no considerable value in itself, 

 while in the instances already noted, the object is to utilize resi- 

 dues of actual nutrients, and which are of considerable value. Be- 

 cause of the low feeding value of these by-products, because in them- 

 selves practically worthless from the nutritive standpoint, the 

 method adopted has been to add a small quantity of other valuable 

 feeds to these, and by attaching high-sounding names to the mix- 



