MILLING BY-PRODUCTS 101 



Determination of quality. — Pure bran contains only such by-products 

 as are formed in the process of grinding pure, clean grain (Society of 

 German Agricultural Experiment Stations). 



Brans and middlings are, to an excessive degree, liable to be adul- 

 terated, usually with other brans and middlings of inferior quality, screen- 

 ings, mill sweepings, ground husks and chaff, castor-oil beans, sawdust, 

 fruit pits, olive seeds, sand, infusorial earth, clay, lime, barite, gypsum, 

 chalk, etc. Screenings contain, on the one hand, defective, undersized, 

 undeveloped and broken grains and harmless weed seeds, many of them 

 nutritious, others of no value whatever. On the other hand there are 

 frequently present poisonous seeds of great variety, poisonous darnel, 

 cow wheat, yellow rattle, corn cockle and charlock. There may also be 

 parasitic fungi, ergot and smut, mouse excrement, etc; in fact, contami- 

 nations of almost any kind or variety, the feeding of which would be a 

 serious matter. While feeding experiments have not shown that all of 

 these contaminations are injurious to health, it is best to regard all of 

 them with suspicion. As with other poisons, the susceptibility of ani- 

 mals varies greatly with reference to the contaminations above mentioned. 



In considering the possible harm that can be done by these foreign 

 admixtures or adulterations it is not sufficient to rely upon the results of 

 a few individual experiments, but it is well to be governed by the results 

 of general experience. Reports of mass poisonings of cattle and espe- 

 cially of swine that have been fed on adulterated bran, middlings and 

 other concentrates are frequent enough. Wheat bran imported from 

 Russia into Germany was found to be contaminated with anthrax spores. 

 In regard to poisoning with corn cockle, see chapter on poisonous plants. 

 With reference to the detection of adulterants, see special chapter. 



Since it is frequently no easy matter to detect or recognize the exact 

 character of adulterants, it would be wise not to purchase bran, middlings 

 or waste products of the vegetable oil industries without a guaranty of 

 their purity, absence of screenings, freedom from spoiled admixtures, etc. 

 The purity of these products should further be controlled by the en- 

 forcement of suitable state or national laws. 



Uses. — Fattening cattle may be given from 4 to 6 pounds, especially 

 of rye bran; fattening swine 1 to 1.5 pounds of middlings with rye bran, 

 buckwheat bran, pea bran, or, more rarely, wheat bran in addition. Milk 

 cows may have 4 to 6 pounds of wheat bran or barley bran, horses up to 

 4 pounds of wheat bran, calves and fattening sheep 1 to 1^ pounds of 

 bran and middlings. For horses bran is best in the form of a mash or 

 slop ; for cattle it should be mixed with other feed and moistened, or fed 

 dry by itself ; for pigs, scalded or cooked, in the form of slop. Middlings 

 give best results when well mixed with warm water, in the form of slop. 

 With reference to feeding milk cows with milling by-products it should 

 be borne in mind that the feeding of large quantities of wheat bran, rice 

 feed meal and millet polish have a tendency to make soft butter, while 

 the by-products of the leguminous seeds have the opposite effect. Rye 



