244 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



Sheep are fond of beans in the unground form and 

 when fed with suitable grain adjuncts, they make an excel- 

 lent food for them. Beans and oats go well together as 

 grain food for breeding ewes, but when the fodder is legu- 

 minous, the proportion of beans fed should be small or the 

 protein in the ration will be excessive. To sheep that are 

 being fattened, corn or barley and beans make quick and 

 large gains. The beans may form from 25 to 50 per cent of 

 the grain ration according to the conditions. 



For growing swine, beans make an excellent ration, 

 cooked or ground and soaked, but some other grain as corn 

 or barley added, improves the ration. To swine that are be- 

 ing fattened, beans and corn in equal parts make an excel- 

 lent food. The claim that beans alone will fatten swine as 

 quickly and satisfactorily as beans and corn, has been dis- 

 posed of at the Michigan experiment station. At the said 

 station, beans and corn fed in equal proportions by weight, 

 gave an increase of 50 per cent higher than beans alone. 



To horses, beans have been but little fed. For such a 

 use, along with oats, corn or barley, and especially along 

 with the latter, they should furnish an excellent food for 

 horses. What is said with reference to the value of horse 

 beans as a food for horses, should apply about equally to 

 common beans (see p. 24). Beans that have heated to the 

 extent of inducing mould, are very hurtful not only to 

 horses but to all kinds of stock. 



Soy beans. The soy bean is now grown as a source of 

 protein in several of the central and southern states, espe- 

 cially the former. The states highest in adaptation include 

 Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and 

 Kentucky. This warm weather plant is not much grown in 

 the North, but even in New England it has been grown 

 with considerable success as a source of protein for the silo, 

 in the unthreshed form. In the northern states, the Canada 

 field pea will usually furnish protein more cheaply and 

 surely, and the same is true of clover and alfalfa in many 

 sections, but the amount of the bulk in these in relation to 



