FOOD FROM CEREALS AND OTHER SEEDS 251 



For sheep, flax when grown with oats in suitable quan- 

 tity, makes an excellent food for breeding ewes, in the un- 

 ground form, the amount of grain fed being not more than 

 one pound daily until after lambing. Grown with oats and 

 barley, or oats, barley and wheat, an excellent mixture is 

 furnished for fattening sheep, without adding any other 

 grain. The gruel mixture and the linseed also are particu- 

 larly excellent for lambs that are hand-fed as they can prob- 

 ably utilize much fat in the ration. 



For swine, a small amount ground with a suitable grain 

 mixture, will improve the ration but the amount should be 

 very small or the appetite will be lessened. 



For horses, a small quantity of the ground flax may be 

 added to the food to prevent constipation but wheat bran is 

 usually preferred for such a purpose. In limited quantity, 

 it may also be thus used in feeding young horses and brood 

 mares but oil cake is more suitable. 



Cotton seed. Nearly all the cotton grown in the 

 United States is produced in the Gulf states and in the 

 states adjacent to them. It is by far the most valuable crop 

 grown in the South. Subsequently to its introduction into 

 the United States, cotton was grown for several decades 

 for the sole purpose of producing fibre to be used in making 

 cloth. Previously to 1860, it is said that nearly all the seed 

 was wasted. It was an enormous waste, as the cotton plant 

 produces about two pounds of seed for each pound of fibre. 

 Since the great value of the seed in furnishing food for live 

 stock and for fertilization have come to be known and ap- 

 preciated, virtually all the seed grown is fed to live stock, 

 chiefly in the form of meal or cake after the oil has been 

 extracted, but it is also fed to some extent while yet un- 

 ground, in the natural condition or steamed, boiled 

 roasted. 



For cattle, cotton seed furnishes an excellent concen- 

 trate. In the production of beef, no grain grown in the 

 United States is equal to cotton seed, pound for pound, in 

 producing value. When fed in the raw or natural form to 



