FOOD FROM CEREALS AND OTHER SEEDS 247 



per cent or more of the ration should be corn, barley or rye 

 meal. As the name would indicate, it stands high in favor 

 as a food for horses. It has been claimed that as a part of 

 the ration it puts spirit into horses subjected to violent ex- 

 ertion, as for instance, horses used in the chase. It has also 

 been used as a grain adjunct and even as the principal grain 

 fed in fattening horses. It has peculiar adaptation for be- 

 ing fed along with corn to horses when the latter is freely 

 fed. For fattening horses, the combination is probably un- 

 rivaled. Wolfe places the comparative feeding value of 

 corn, horse beans, also oats as 4, 4.5 and 5. 



Cowpeas. The cowpea is the great soil restorer of 

 the southern states. It may be grown with entire success 

 south of parallel 40 degrees and in many localities with 

 measurable success much further north. While it is likely 

 that it will be much grown to furnish pasture for live stock, 

 and also hay for the same, it would seem probable that the 

 amount of grain fed will continue to be more or less lim- 

 ited, owing first, to the tendency in the crop to ripen un- 

 evenly, and second, to the considerable labor in handling it 

 because of peculiarities of growth after it has matured. 

 Nevertheless, it will furnish excellent food for live stock 

 where it can be devoted to such a use. Generally the grain 

 in the threshed form is too dear to admit of its being fed 

 thus with profit. It is usually ground when fed to cattle, 

 but is fed in the unground form to sheep. To swine and 

 horses it is fed ground or unground. Owing to the high 

 protein content possessed by cowpeas, they furnish a suit- 

 able concentrate for young stock. 



For cattle, when ground and fed along with suitable 

 adjuncts, they furnish excellent food. The meal, like 

 that of Canada field pea, is usually somewhat heavy for 

 being fed alone, hence, for nearly all kinds of feeding and 

 especially for cattle, it is improved by mixing with it 

 ground oats or wheat bran. Such a mixture, containing say 

 50 per cent of cowpea meal is excellent for calves and dairy 

 cows, but a percentage much less than that named will 



