CONCENTRATED FEEDS 119 



not be for sheep. Wheat tends to make animals muscular 

 or lean and hence its feeding value is greatly improved by 

 the addition of an equal amount of corn. 



Wheat bran is the outer covering of the kernel. In the 

 big flour mills, the kernel is crushed to obtain the flour, and 

 the thin outer fibrous covering is removed as bran. This 

 contains about 12 per cent of digestible protein, and is a 

 standard concentrate for feeding horses, cattle, and sheep. 

 We say that bran is a laxative, and keeps the digestive sys- 

 tem cool and open, a very necessary condition for farm ani- 

 mals. Stockmen have always regarded bran as especially 

 valuable. It has recently been found by chemists to con- 

 tain an acid substance called phytin, which has beneficial 

 laxative effects on the digestion. Wheat bran is well suited 

 to mix with corn or oats or may be fed alone to stock. Many 

 horsemen feed it in the form of a thick, wet, warm slop, 

 called "bran mash." Bran is even more of a muscle and 

 bone-making food than wheat, and most students of feeding 

 use it for young, growing animals. There are brans made 

 from spring wheat, such as is grown in the Northwest, and 

 from winter wheat. There is not much difference between 

 them, but the bran from winter wheat usually contains some- 

 what more flour than that from spring wheat. 



Wheat middlings are also a by-product of the flour mill. 

 They are commonly of two grades in the trade, flour, or 

 white, middlings containing about 15J/2 per cent of digestible 

 protein, and standard middlings, containing about 13J^ per 

 cent of protein. The total digestible nutrients as given by 

 Henry and Morrison are 78.2 per cent for the former and 

 69.3 per cent for the latter. Standard middlings contain less 

 flour than the other grade, and are quite similar to shorts, 

 which is often reground bran. Flour middlings usually cost 

 four or five dollars more a ton than the standard, and are 

 much preferred to the latter by feeders of hogs, for which 

 purpose middlings are mainly used by the farmer. On the 



