March, 1915] analysis op feeding-stuffs. 7 



quality. Some of the corn and oat feeds, however, are of 

 excellent quality. The consumer should scrutinize care- 

 fully the guarantee and examine the product to make cer- 

 tain that an undue amount of oat hulls is not present. 

 Whole ground oats on the average contains about 10.8% 

 crude fiber. Ground corn contains about 2.2% fiber. A 

 mixture of eciual parts should contain 6.5% crude fiber. 

 A mixture containing two parts of oats and one of corn 

 would contain about 8% crude fiber. In general the qual- 

 ity of a corn and oat feed becomes suspicious when the 

 crude fiber reaches more than 8%. 



Notwithstanding such exceptions as have been mentioned 

 the market offers thoroughly good compounded feeds. 

 The retail prices of these are but little greater than for 

 feeds of much poorer quality. The consumer should study 

 his needs and buy the feeds which are the most econom- 

 ical. Compounded feeds made from a mixture of good 

 products and poor products usually sell for about the same 

 price as the better ingredients alone. In other words, the 

 consumer pays as much for poor products as for good 

 products when they are mixed together. 



Where wheat feeds are mixed with ground screenings, 

 the product should be labeled to show that this has been 

 done. No samples that Ve have examined have contained 

 an excessive amount of light weight material such as is 

 often found in screenings. 



THE CONSTITUENTS OF FEEDING-STUFFS. 



In the complete chemical analysis of a feeding-stuff 

 the following determinations are made : moisture, ash, 

 protein, fat, fibre, and nitrogen-free extract. The value 

 of a feeding-stuff is often based on the amount of protein 

 and fat it contains. For that reason these two constituents 

 are sometimes the only ones determined. While the 

 amount of protein and fat is important, at the same time 

 the carbohydrates are also very important and in many 

 classes of feeding-stuffs form the chief source of value. 



MOISTURE. 



Water is present to some extent in all classes of feeds. 

 The per cent in most cases varies between five and fif- 



