No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 481 



next? Oats. I kuow of ao feed that will put more stamina into 

 cattle than oats will. They will not produce any more milk, but 

 they will stay longer than wheat bran. 



What next? Buckwheat middlings; very little fibre, but very 

 rich in protein, and very rich in fat. Where you are making butter 

 in large quantities, it has a tendency to make a soft butter. 



Now, we have got through the list of farm products, but we must 

 have more protein; so what shall we do? Usually we shall have to 

 go out and buy. A man said to me sometime ago, "What is your 

 balanced ration?"' I said to him, "I have not got any balanced 

 ration." I am going to buy where I can get the greatest amount of 

 food value for my money. I have been a great sticker for wheat 

 feed, and I have said frequently, because I believed it, that a large 

 portion of our rations should be bran or middlings, because it makes 

 bone. I know now that bran and middlings are not necessaary for the 

 cow, and how do I know it? I have eliminated it largely from my 

 list for the last two years, and my cows are just as healthy as they 

 were before. When a man asks me over |20 for bran, and I can for 

 that money get something that has more protein, I tell him to keep 

 his bran and I will keep my money. What about bone material? 

 If the food is deficient in it, feed a couple spoonfulls of bone meal 

 daily. I find that malt sprouts and brewery grains, which are made 

 from barley, will not hurt the cattle in the least; and these by-pro- 

 ducts of the brewery are cheaper and better than a like amount of 

 the wheat feeds at the same money. 



I don't buy the starch by-products and I need more proteiu, so 

 what am I going to buy? I don't want to buy crude fibre, and if in 

 some of these mixed feeds, when a man comes to buy them, he finds 

 he is feeding — what did the Professor say this afternoon — 20 per 

 cent. I think one of them ran up to 50 per cent, of it, and it is not 

 a notion, but, friends, some of these feeds are 60 per cent, fibre. But 

 I must have more protein, and I will buy where I can get the most 

 digestible material for the least amount of money. I don't know 

 what it will be next year, but I know what it is this year, the brew- 

 ers' grains, and distillers' grains. A carload of brewers' grain con- 

 tains twice the .amount of the protein and fat as bran; it may not be 

 quite as digestible. 



Cottonseed meal at f30 is not dear when we think it has 40 per 

 cent, of protein and 10 per cent, of fat. Of course, we can't feed 

 that in excessive quantities, but a couple of pounds a day may be 

 fed with profit. 



I find that I can get as much milk out of a ton of 20 per cent, 

 gluten as I can out of a ton of cottonseed meal, but if I feed the 

 gluten exclusively, my cows will get thin. Then the linseed meal, 

 very rich in protein and very economical. Prof. Fuller told us this 

 afternoon that some of the stock feeds on the market sold as high 

 as ^160 per ton and are composed chiefly of linseed meal at f82 

 per ton. I haA^e never seen the man who denied it. but then, they 

 tell you it is mixed with several expensive drugs. Well, if you want 

 to feed it. I will guarantee this to be as good as the drugs they use: 



31—7—1906. 



