154 FEEDS AND FEEDING, ABRIDGED 



Many mixed feeds are the result of honest and intelligent efforts to 

 furnish a ready-mixed "balanced" concentrate mixture for the vari- 

 ous classes of farm animals. Such have won good reputations among 

 intelligent feeders. Others are merely attempts to delude the pur- 

 chaser into paying as much for mixtures of low-grade, trashy by- 

 products as high-class concentrates would cost. All mixed feeds 

 should be purchased not on the strength of a "fancy" name, but on 

 the guarantee of the amounts of crude protein, fat, and fiber present 

 in the mixture. By comparing the fiber guarantee with the fiber con- 

 tent of well-known unmixed concentrates, as given in Appendix Table 

 I, one may estimate the extent to which such refuse as oat hulls and 

 ground corn cobs have been added. Such materials, high in fiber, 

 furnish little nutriment, tho they may give bulk to an otherwise heavy 

 mixture. Before buying mixed feeds, the wise feeder will compare 

 the amount of nutrients he can secure for each dollar in these feeds 

 and in the unmixed standard by-products. 



IV. Commercial Feeding Stuffs Control 



Because it is often impossible for the stockman to tell from the ap- 

 pearance of a commercial feed whether it is of standard quality or 

 has been adulterated, laws have been enacted to protect honest dealers 

 and manufacturers and the users of commercial feeds alike. 



Regulation of commercial feeds. — Many of the states now have laws 

 which require that each package of concentrated feed bear a label, 

 tag, or statement giving the percentages of crude protein and fat the 

 feed contains. Some states wisely require that the maximum amount 

 of fiber be guaranteed. (This means that the feed must not contain 

 more fiber than the guarantee states.) In others all ingredients in 

 mixed feeds must be stated. 



Large users of commercial feeds are usually experienced buyers 

 who purchase only the better grade of standard feeding stuffs at 

 close prices, or secure such materials as screenings, etc., knowing fully 

 their composition and value. It is the small buyer, often feeling the 

 pinch of poverty, who is most easily ensnared by the extravagant 

 claims and catchy names of the low-grade, trashy articles. In his at- 

 tempt to secure something that sells for less than is demanded for 

 standard goods, he forgets that these cheap commercial feeds are 

 really more like roughages than concentrates, and roughages can be 

 produced on most farms far more economically than they can be pur- 

 chased in bags from the feed dealer. Low-grade feeding stuffs, no 

 matter what their names, will bring hardship to the animals fed on 

 them, and to the owners of such animals as well. When in doubt as 



