MISCELLANEOUS FEEDS 211 



limited use for feeding farm animals in different parts of the 

 world; a few of these will be briefly considered in the following. 



Leaves and twigs of brush and trees are a favorite feed for 

 goats, and also used for feeding cattle and sheep in the northern 

 part of the Scandinavian countries and Finland, being harvested 

 and tied in bundles in. the summer and fed during the winter 

 months as a partial substitute for hay, which often cannot be ob- 

 tained in sufficient quantities to carry the animals through the 

 season. Birch, ash, and linden are commonly harvested for this 

 purpose. The dried leaves and small twigs of these trees, fed in 

 a limited amount, make a fair feed for the animals mentioned, as 

 well as for goats, and have about similar nutritive value as the 

 lower grades of hay or straw. Brush feed has been recommended as 

 a carrier for molasses in feeding farm stock, and is used for this 

 purpose to a limited extent. 1 It consists of leaves, twigs, and small 

 stems of underbrush, which are run through a cutter and crusher, 

 and molasses is afterwards mixed with the material. Enthusiastic 

 reports of such molasses feeds are on record, but their feeding 

 value has not yet been determined by means of carefully-conducted 

 experiments. 



Acorns and beechnuts are used as a swine feed on the Continent 

 in Europe, and in a small way in this country in the South and in 

 California, the animals being driven to the woods in the fall and 

 fattened upon the nuts that they pick up from the ground. Ac- 

 cording to the Tuskegee, Alabama, station, 2 acorns and kitchen 

 slop make a good feed for swine, about five pounds of acorns being 

 fed per head daily. The tendency of beechnuts to make a soft 

 pork of inferior quality may be overcome by feeding peas or horse 

 beans for a few weeks prior to slaughtering time. The effect of 

 acorns on the quality of the pork appears to be in the opposite 

 direction, although the evidence on this point is somewhat conflict- 

 ing. 3 Both these nut and brush feeds contain considerable quantities 

 of tannin which renders them bitter and less palatable to stock 

 than ordinary feeding stuffs. 



Icelandic moss is another material that is sometimes used for 

 feeding cattle in extreme northern countries. It may be inferred 

 that this possesses considerable feeding value from the fact that it 

 forms the main and often sole feed of the reindeer in these northern 

 regions. Its digestibility and nutritive effects have been studied 



1 Wisconsin Circular 30, p. 94. 



2 Bulletin 93. 



3 Pott, " Futtermittellehre," ii, 1, p. 569. 



