272 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



by cooking. It is not going too far to say that the investigators of this 

 subject usually began their studies in the full belief that the common 

 feeding stuffs would be improved by cooking. Yet the unmistakable 

 results of their experiments showed them the error of their previous idea. 

 At the "Wisconsin Station 39 the senior author, starting with the belief 

 that cooking must increase the value of the common feeds for swine, 

 after some 15 trials with cooked and uncooked whole corn, corn meal, 

 ground barley, and wheat middlings, was forced to the conclusion that 

 the Maine findings were correct. (922) 



428. Stock bread. In some sections of Europe bread is made from 

 ground cereals, leguminous seeds, potatoes, cut straw, chaff, etc., prin- 

 cipally for horses, tho sometimes for calves and cattle. The bread may 

 be more appetizing than the original materials, but the chemical changes 

 which take place as a whole do not increase its nutritive value. Such 

 preparation can be generally recommended only where unpalatable feed 

 may thereby be consumed with less waste. Unless baked into hard 

 biscuits such bread will keep only a comparatively short time. 



429. When cooking feed is advisable. No one can review the large 

 accumulation of data from the experiment stations without being con- 

 vinced that, rather than there being a gain, there is in most cases an actual 

 loss from cooking. The only exceptions are a few feeds, such as potatoes 

 and field beans, which can be successfully fed to pigs only after being 

 cooked. In winter it is often advantageous to give warm feed to pigs, 

 but this is entirely different from cooking the feed. 



430. Soaking feed. When grain with hard or small kernels can not be 

 conveniently ground or crushed, it should be softened by soaking before 

 feeding, care being taken that the meal does not become stale by long 

 standing. Old corn often becomes hard and flinty in the summer and 

 sometimes causes sore mouths in cattle or other stock if fed whole. It 

 should then be ground or soaked. 



431. General conclusions. It has generally been assumed that by 

 grinding and cooking feed much labor is saved the animal, to the 

 advantage of the feeder. This idea is based on the general theory that 

 the less work the animal does in mastication and digestion the larger the 

 net production of work, flesh, or milk. On the contrary, we know that 

 the muscles of the body do not grow strong thru idleness, and that work 

 and activity are conducive to bodily health, growth, and strength. We 

 must therefore conclude that the organs of mastication and digestion 

 should be kept working at their normal capacity. 



The economy of the different methods of preparing feed for each class 

 of stock is discussed in detail in the respective chapters of Part III. 



"Wis. Ept. 1893. 



