Influence of Grinding and of Salt 133 



INFLUENCE OF GRINDING 



Few points are more frequently questioned than the 

 profitableness of grinding grain. There seem to be 

 onh' two ways in which such preparation can enhance 

 the nutritive value of a feeding stuff; viz., by dimin- 

 ishing the energy needed for the digestive processes 

 and by increasing the digestibility. While only about 

 a half-dozen experiments bearing upon the digestion 

 side of this question are on record, their evidence is 

 quite emphatic. In three trials with horses, with both 

 corn and oats, grinding caused an increase of digesti- 

 bility varying from 3.3 to 14 per cent. A single 

 experiment with maize kernels gave a greater diges- 

 tibility of about 7 per cent from grinding, and with 

 wheat, in one trial, the increase was 10 per cent. In 

 one test of oats with sheep, the unground kernels were 

 as completely utilized as the ground. It is reasonable 

 to expect that with ruminants the danger of imperfect 

 mastication is less than with horses and swine, although 

 whole kernels of grain are often seen in the feces of 

 bovines. The profitableness of grinding grain turns, in 

 part at least, upon the relation of the cost of grinding to 

 the loss of nutritive material from not grinding. If the 

 miller's toll amounts to one -tenth the value of the grain 

 the economy of grinding it may be doubtful, especially 

 with ruminants. 



EFFECT OF COMMON SALT 



It is the custom of many feeders to allow their ani- 

 mals an unlimited supply of salt, and others furnish it 



