FEEDING ANIMALS 133 



Dried Prunes for Cows. 



My cow is very fond of dried prunes. Will they cause her any injury 

 if fed with the seeds? She will greedily eat several gallons at a 

 time. Am having success feeding them to pigs. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, the pits do not cause any 

 trouble when dried prunes are eaten by cows or hogs. According to 

 Professor Jaffa, 100 pounds of this fruit has a similar feeding value 

 to about 85 pounds of barley or oats. Being high in sugar (nutritive 

 ratio 1 : 16.7), they are preferably fed with grain or mill feeds and alfalfa 

 hay in order that sufficient protein be furnished in the ration to meet 

 the requirements of the animals for growth or production, or both. 

 F. W. W. 



Grapes for Horses. 



When Tokay grape packing begins we have lots of culls that will 

 run about 20 per cent sugar. Horses are very fond of these culls and 

 will eat fifty or sixty pounds each per day. They will leave first class 

 alfalfa hay for these culls. The only effect I can see is a slight loosen- 

 ing of the bowels, and they probably won't eat quite so many hard stems 

 among the hay when they have all the culls they want. Some people say 

 they are not good for horses, and that they will ruin the enamel on 

 the teeth. 



Grapes and grape pomace are occasionally used for feeding farm 

 animals, especially hogs and horses, and those who have had experi- 

 ence with them report in the same way as the correspondent in regard 

 to their palatability and apparent feeding value. The stems and skins 

 contain a good deal of tannic acid, which is an undesirable constituent 

 in a feed, and considerable amounts of tartaric acid are also found in 

 grapes and grape residues. The tendency to scouring referred to is 

 doubtless partly due to the presence of the latter of these constituents 

 and partly to the mechanical effect. On both accounts it is necessary 

 to feed these products rather carefully, in moderate amounts only, 

 and always in connection with dry forage, but aside from this difficulty 

 there is no reason to believe that the feeding of either grapes or grape 

 pomace will prove injurious. There is probably no more to the fear 

 that they will ruin the enamel on the teeth of horses than that silage 

 will ruin the teeth of cattle which we hear stated now and then, and 

 still silos are going up in increasing numbers every year, and as 

 farmers get experience in feeding silage, they forget all about the 

 disastrous results that they are warned may come from its use. The 

 reason is that these results are either imaginary, or farmers learn to 

 use the feed in such a manner that no injurious results occur. There 

 is, of course, much less accurate information as to the feeding of 

 grape and fruit by-products to farm animals than as to the effect of 

 silage, but we are doubtless safe in stating that with the precautions 

 suggested they may be safely fed to farm animals when market con- 

 ditions render it desirable to do so. F. W. W. 



