COMPOSITION OF FEEDING STUFFS. 215 



the oil-bearing seeds, about one third of these being composed of 

 oil or fat; the oil-mill refuse feeds are also rich in fat, especially 

 cottonseed meal and old-process linseed meal; other feeds rich in 

 fat are gluten meal and feed, dried distillers' grains, and rice meal. 

 The ether-extract of the coarse fodders contains considerable wax, 

 resins, and other substances which have a low feeding value, while 

 that of the seeds and by-products from these are essentially pure 

 fat or oil. 



Protein or flesh-forming substances are considered of the high- 

 est importance in feeding animals, because they supply the ma- 

 terial required for building up the tissues of the body, and for 

 maintaining these under the wear caused by the vital functions. 

 Ordinarily the feed rations of most farmers are deficient in protein 

 since most of the farm-grown foods (aside from clover, alfalfa, 

 peas and similar crops) contain only small amounts of these sub- 

 stances. The feeding stuffs richest in protein are, among the coarse 

 foods, those already mentioned; among the concentrated foods; 

 cottonseed meal, linseed meal, gluten meal, gluten feed, buckwheat 

 middlings, and the flour-mill, brewery, and distillery refuse feeds. 

 The protein substances are also called nitrogenous bodies for the 

 reasons given above, and the other organic (combustible) compo- 

 nents in the feeding stuffs are spoken of as non -nitrogenous sub- 

 stances. The non-nitrogenous components of feeding stuffs, there- 

 fore, include fat and the two following groups, fiber and nitrogen- 

 free extract. 



Crude fiber (or simply fiber) is the framework of the plants, 

 forming the walls of the cells. It is usually the .least digestible 

 portion of plants and vegetable foods, and the larger proportion 

 present thereof the less valuable the food is. We find, according- 

 ly, that the fodders containing most fiber are the cheapest foods 

 and least prized by feeders, as, e. g., straw of the various cereal 

 and seed-producing crops, corncobs, oat and rice hulls, cottonseed 

 hulls, buckwheat hulls, and the like. These feeding stuffs, in so 

 far as they can be considered as such, contain as a rule between 

 35 and 50 per cent, of fibre. Concentrated feeding stuffs, on the 

 other hand, generally contain less than 10 per cent, of fibre and in 

 all cereals but oats only a few per cent, of fibre are found. 



Nitrogen-free extract is, a general name for all that is left of 

 the organic matter of plants and fodders after deducting the pre- 



