138 Feeds and Feeding. 



the finer bran particles with considerable flour adhering. Shorts 

 too often consist of ground-over bran and the sweepings and dirt 

 of the mills, along with ground or unground weed seeds. Mid- 

 dlings are highly useful with swine of all ages. They should not 

 be fed separately, but should always be mixed with corn meal, bar- 

 ley meal, ground oats, or bran, therewith forming most satisfac- 

 tory feed combinations. (850) Mixed with the various ground 

 grains, middlings and shorts are helpful with dairy cows, since 

 they add crude protein and phosphorus to the ration. (633) Mid- 

 dlings and shorts alone should never be fed to horses, since they 

 are too heavy and pasty in character and are liable to induce colic. 

 Like bran, both middlings and shorts are low in lime, a deficiency 

 which should always be supplied by the other feeds in the ration. 



167. Screenings. In cleaning and grading wheat at tKe eleva- 

 tors and mills, great quantities of screenings remain, consisting of 

 broken and shrunken wheat kernels having a high feeding value, 

 and also weed seeds, many of which have value, while others are 

 of little worth, and a few actually poisonous. Screenings have 

 their place and use, tho, on account of their variable character, 

 little of definite nature can be said concerning them. (752) Along 

 with molasses and the by-products of the distilleries, breweries, 

 flouring mills, oatmeal factories, etc., they are now largely absorbed 

 in the manufacture of proprietary feeding stuffs. 



III. OATS AND THEIR BY-PRODUCTS. 



Next to corn, oats are the most extensively grown cereal in 

 America. In the southern portion of our country a bushel of oats 

 often weighs only 20 Ibs., while on the Pacific coast it may weigh 

 50 Ibs. Southern oats have a larger kernel than the Northern grain. 

 They bear an inflated husk carrying an awn or beard, which causes 

 the grains to lie loosely in the measure. At 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 w r eight per bushel. A 

 hulless variety of oats, but little grown in this country, serves 

 well for poultry and swine, while the varieties with hulls are pref- 

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

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



168. Oats for horses. Oats are the safest of all feeds for the 

 horse, for the hull gives to them such volume that the animal rarely 



