162 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



Southern oats have a larger kernel than the northern grain, but bear 

 an inflated husk carrying an awn or beard, which causes the grains 

 to lie loosely in the measure. In the North the kernel is encased in a 

 compact hull, usually not awned. The hulls of oats constitute from 20 

 to 45 per ct. of their total weight, the average being about 30 per ct. 

 " Clipped oats" have had the hulls clipped at the pointed end, thereby 

 increasing the weight per bushel. A hulless oat, but little grown in this 

 country, serves well for poultry and swine, while the varieties with hulls 

 are preferable for other stock. The oat grain is higher in crude protein 

 than is corn, while in fat it exceeds wheat and nearly equals corn. 



223. Oats as a feed. Oats are the safest of all feeds for the horse, for 

 the hull gives them such volume that the animal rarely suffers from gorg- 

 ing; in this respect they are in strong contrast with corn. On account 

 of the mettle so characteristic of the oat-fed horse, it was long held that 

 there is a stimulating substance in the oat grain. All claims of the dis- 

 covery of this compound have, however, melted away on careful exam- 

 ination, and rations containing no oats have given results in every way 

 as good as where oats were fed. (473-4) For dairy cows there is no better 

 grain than oats, but the price of oats is often relatively high. (579) 

 Oats mixed with other concentrates are helpful in starting fattening 

 cattle or sheep on feed. As fattening progresses more concentrated feeds 

 are usually substituted for all or most of the oats, because oats are much 

 inferior to corn for fattening animals. (740, 851) Ground oats with the 

 hulls sifted out provide a nourishing and wholesome feed for young 

 calves and pigs. (946) For breeding swine, whole oats in limited 

 quantity are always in place. As light weight oats contain more hull and 

 less kernel than plump, heavy oats, their feeding value per pound will 

 be correspondingly less. 



In recent years the bleaching of low-grade oats and barley with sul- 

 furous acid fumes to whiten the grain and raise the market grade, has 

 become common. Smith 18 estimates that in a 6-months period, beginning in 

 October, nearly 19,000,000 bushels of oats and barley were bleached at 

 13 grain centers in 3 north-central states. No feeding trials have been 

 reported in which bleached oats have been fed, but complaints of in- 

 jurious effects on the health of horses fed such oats are not uncommon. 

 Several states have laws regulating the sale of bleached grains. 



224. Oat by-products, In the manufacture of oatmeal and other break- 

 fast foods, after the light-weight grains are screened out to be sold as 

 feed, the hulls are removed from the remainder, a vast quantity result- 

 ing. So completely are the kernels separated that the chaff-like hulls 

 have but low feeding value. Oat hulls contain about 30 per ct. fiber, as 

 Appendix Table I shows, and their feeding value is only little, if any, 

 above that of oat straw. If fragments of the kernels adhere, their value 

 is of course thereby improved. The oat hulls are sold in mixture with 

 other feeds under various names. (288) The statement of feed manu- 



M U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus., Bui. 74. 



