21 



Oat middlings, one of the by-products from the manufacture of rolled oats, 

 is an excellent product, although seldom found on the market, owing to its 

 extensive use in calf meals and poultry feeds. 



Mixed Cereal Meals. — Several samples of provender (corn and oats) 

 and one brand of corn, oats and barley (Monopoly Feed) are reported. They 

 were free from adulteration, and can be considered as satisfactory as the 

 cereal meals from which they are made. 



Stock and Horse Feeds. — Such mixtures as are grouped under this 

 heading usually contain oat feed (oat hulls, middlings and dust), together 

 with more digestible products. The principal object of their sale is to form 

 a satisfactory outlet for the large amount of residue resulting in the manu- 

 facture of rolled oats and oat meal. Their use cannot be recommended 

 except when they are sold at such a price as to form an economical substitute 

 for the cereal grains. In the purchase of such material care should be taken 

 to avoid those brands containing an excessive amount of fiber (10 per cent 

 for the maximum). The prospective purchaser will be repaid for a careful 

 study of the analytical data given for feeds of this group. 



Poultry Feeds. 



Alfalfa meal, while used in many prepared horse and dairy feeds, when 

 unmixed is usually purchased in Massachusetts as a poultry food. Its value 

 in the poultry ration has probably been overestimated, as in the dry state 

 its high fiber content lowers its digestibility. It has also proved rather un- 

 palatable in tests made at the poultry department of the Agricultural College. 

 The Globe Brand, a California product, showed an exceptionally high protein 

 and low fiber content. 



Poultry Mashes and Meals. — The most striking point in the analyses 

 of the poultry mashes as given in the compilation is their wide diver- 

 gence in chemical composition. In many instances they must have been 

 mixed without any idea of the food requirements of fowls. For laying 

 birds, a mash should consist of from 15 to 20 per cent of a good quality 

 of meat scraps mixed with other products low in fiber content and not 

 unpalatable. 



While for the small backyard flock it may be advisable to use ready-mixed 

 mashes, for a flock of any size the advantages of home mixing are just as 

 great for poultry as for dairy stock. 



