400 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



C Discussion on Commercial Feed Stuffs. 

 By C. a. Goessmann. 



The name commercial feed stuff or concentrated commer- 

 cial feed stuffs is usually applied to a class of substances 

 offered for sale in our markets which, in the majority of 

 cases, are the waste or by-products of other branches of in- 

 dustry. Some of those articles, as brans, middlings and oil 

 cakes, have been for years quite generally used in the daily 

 diet of all kinds of farm live stock ; others, as the gluten 

 meal, gluten feed, corn germ meal, dried brewers' grain, 

 malt sprouts, dry distillery feed, etc., have been but recently 

 more generally ofl'ered for a similar purpose. 



Their importance as an additional valuable fodder supply 

 for the support of every branch of animal industry on the 

 farm and elsewhere has become from year to year more con- 

 spicuous, on account of a marked increase of the supply of 

 well-known articles, as well as of the introduction of many 

 new kinds. Their consumption is apparently daily increas- 

 ing, and seems to keep step with the supply. 



The special value claimed for commercial feed stuffs as an 

 important source of fodder supply rests in the main on their 

 fitness to supplement advantageously our coarse home-raised 

 fodder crop in the interest of a higher feeding effect and of 

 a better economy. A frequently good mechanical condition, 

 as well as an exceptionally valuable chemical composition, 

 adapt many of them in a high degree for that purpose. 



As no single farm crop or any part of it has been 

 found to supply economically and efficiently to any consid- 

 erable extent the particular wants of food of our various 

 kinds of farm live stock, to secure the best possible results, 

 it liecomes a matter of first im})ortance from a mere finan- 

 cial stand-point to know how to supplement our current 

 farm crops to meet the wants of each kind of animals under 

 various circumstances in a desirable degree. To secure the 

 highest feeding effect of each fodder article raised upon the 

 farm is most desiral)le in the interest of good economy. 



Practical experience in the dairy has thus far abundantly 

 shown that the efficiency of a daily diet does not so much 



