6 N. H. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 175 



more difficult to understand why the consumer will often 

 pay more for these than for thoroughly good products. 



Another class of feeds found on the market year after 

 year are molasses feeds. These have considerable feeding 

 value but almost without exception they contain relatively 

 large amounts of light weight and inferior material. 

 Sound and high-grade cereal by-products, for the most 

 part, are relatively heavy and will not float when stirred 

 into water. Some of the molasses feeds contain as much 

 as 34% of light weight and inferior material which is 

 lighter than water. This contains large amounts of crude 

 fiber. One brand of these feeds contained 28% light 

 weight material which in turn contained 28.5% crude fiber. 

 Another sample contained 34% light weight material which 

 contained 29% crude fiber. This light weight material is 

 generally poor in protein. Usually high-grade materials 

 rich in protein are added to the poor material to bring the 

 average up. The consumer usually pays about as much for 

 this poor material as he would have to pay for products of 

 good quality. 



New Hampshire consumers can not afford to buy feed- 

 stuffs of poor quality, unless the price is proportionately 

 low. Such material should be used at or near the point 

 of manufacture. The freight and many of the overhead 

 charges are the same on poor and good products. The 

 selling charges are often many times greater on the feeds 

 which are inferior in quality. We are informed that the 

 commission for selling bran, gluten, and other standard 

 products is $5.00 per car. On some others, the commis- 

 sion may be $35.00 to $45.00. The retailer, in turn, prob- 

 ably requires a higher commission for handling these low- 

 grade products. This is supported by the fact that "Oat 

 Feed" put up by the Robin Hood Mills often retails from 

 .$1.25 to $1.60 per hundred pounds. This material is 

 quoted at about $15.00 per ton wholesale. The retailer 

 apparently adding $10.00 to $15.00 per ton to the wholesale 

 price. 



The corn and oat feeds, as a whole, appear to be de- 

 clining in quality. The amount of crude fiber is in- 

 creasing. This would indicate that the manufacturers are 

 using a greater amount of oat feed or oats of an inferior 



