Feed and Care of the Dairy Cow. 473 



an average shock, husking out the ears and ascertaining how 

 much shelled corn it carries. In feeding corn in this manner 

 some of the grain will pass into the droppings undigested, but 

 this need not be wasted if lusty shotes are given the opportunity 

 of searching it out. (538, 634) 



716. Corn meal. When exposed to the air corn becomes dry 

 and should then be ground before feeding. Corn meal is a heavy, 

 rich feed and should always be lightened or extended by the use 

 of bran, shorts, oil meal, or some other feed of light character. 

 Corn and cob meal will be found satisfactory for dairy feeding, 

 and is recommended whenever it is possible to secure it at not too 

 great expense for grinding. 



717. By-products of corn. Gluten meal, cream-gluten, grano- 

 gluten, corn germ and other by-products of corn are all excellent 

 articles for feeding the cow, and their use is strongly commended. 

 Eastern dairymen have learned to appreciate these articles and 

 use them extensively, while Western dairymen, often living at 

 no great distance from the factories where they are produced, 

 know little or nothing concerning them. (161-4, 635-7) 



718. Oats. It is not difficult to believe that oats, the most val- 

 uable grain for the horse, are also a prime feed for the dairy cow. 

 The husk of the oat, though carrying little nutriment, renders this 

 grain a feed of light character in the stomach and easy of diges- 

 tion. With the data given us by Woll, (642) the dairy farmer 

 is in position to easily determine whether he can afford to feed 

 the oats he may grow, or exchange them for bran or other com- 

 mon feeds. 



The by-products of oat-meal factories are valuable just in the 

 proportion in which the kernels of the oat grain appear in them. 

 Often there are sufficient fragments of kernels in these articles to 

 warrant the payment of a fair price for them; but when the hulls 

 only are offered the dairyman would better let them alone, for 

 they are no better than the roughage in his mows and stacks. 



719. Wheat bran and middlings. Next to corn, wheat bran is 

 the great cow feed of this country. Rich in ash and protein, 

 carrying a fair amount of starchy matter, its light, chaffy char- 

 acter renders it the natural complement of heavy corn meal. 



