No 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 419 



that there is some feeding value in corn cobs, but is there enough 

 of feeding value in them to pay for the expense of preparing them 

 for feed. 



I want to call your attention to samples of weed seeds, as pre- 

 pared in our exhibit. These are known as wheat screenings and 

 are sold as such to the trade, but when you and I talk of wheat 

 screenings, we think of the small grains of the wheat berry, but 

 this is not the case to-day. The large millers in the West sieve out 

 the weed seeds and sell them to the compounders of molasses feeds 

 or chicken feeds, and they in turn sell them to you and your friends 

 at from |25 to |40 per ton. You are not only defrauded in buying 

 them for feed, but they are carried all over your farm in the manure 

 which germinate and grow you a fine crop of weeds. 



By referring to the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 Bulletin, No. 131, on commercial feeding stuffs, I find that there are 

 129,000,000 weed seeds in a ton of molasses feed,, or three for every 

 square foot of a hundred acre farm, I have the bulletin here and 

 would refer you to the cuts, showing you what they have grown 

 from some of these seeds. 



I also would refer you to Bulletin No. 15, issued by the Maine 

 Experiment Station on feeding stuffs, on page 196. They take at 

 their experiment station, 100 lbs. of feed and they find that it con- 

 tains 225,800 weed seeds. Sample No. 2G56 contains 335,664 seeds 

 to the hundred pounds. Sample No. 2773 contains 1,886,976 weed 

 seeds. Sample No. 2943 contains 1,224,724 weed seeds. They claim 

 that these seeds will all sprout or germinate. They have conducted 

 a series of experiments and I have no doubt but that they have 

 been conducted on a fair basis. The kinds of seeds found in these 

 different samples were pigweed, mustard, foxtail, flax, ladies thumb 

 and wild buckwheat. These are large figures, but they are given 

 just as found in the Bulletins w'hich is issued by the Stations re- 

 ferred to. 



By referring to a sample of ground weed seeds in the exhibit 

 that is before you, you will find that said sample runs as high,, if 

 not a little higher than wheat middlings. It is very plain to you 

 that of two feeds having nearly the same composition, the one which 

 is more digestible, has a greater nutritive value. Although these 

 screenings contain approximately the same amount of crude protein 

 as wheat middlings and approximatel.y four times as much crude 

 fat, yet it is very doubtful whether an equal value could be placed 

 upon them. Although the percentage of crude protein and crude 

 fat are used to judge of the quality of feeding stuffs, yet the health- 

 fulness and palatability of a feed largely determine its value for 

 feeding domestic animails. To the best of our knowledge, no 

 digestion experiments have been undertaken to prove the 

 digestibility of w^eed seeds. 



One alfalfa firm in the City of Pittsburg sold 150 carloads in the 

 last 6 months. A gentleman in Nebraska informed me that alfalfa 

 has increased their farm land f5.00 per acre as they can grow more 

 hogs and keep more cows. 



Why not raise alfalfa in Pennsylvania? 



Inasmuch as alfalfa has been used of late to a considerable extent, 

 it seems advisable to call your attention to its value as a feed. I 

 have, therefore, requested Prof. F. D. Fuller, Chief Chemist, to 

 prepare something along this line, which is as follows: 



