190(5.] PUBLIC DOCUMKNT — No. 83. 90 



fertilizer ingredients in bran have from 10 to 50 per cent, 

 less money value than those contained in the other by- 

 products. 



6. The nutritive material and especially the protein con- 

 tained in wheat bran must be. regarded, therefore, as rela- 

 tively expensive. Because of its palatability, its laxative 

 eftect and its desirability as a diluter or distributer of the 

 heavy concentrates, it will continue to be used by many 

 farmers as a portion of the grain ration for dairy stock. 

 See practical deductions as to the use of bran, on page 114. 



(5) Wheat Bran v. Corn Silage as a Distributer of the 



Heavy Concentrates. 



Experiment I. Spring, 1903. 



Object of the Experiment. — Wheat bran has been shown 

 to be an expensive feed, judged solely from the amount of 

 nutritive material it contains. The present experiment was 

 undertaken to see if silage would not serve as a distributer 

 equally as well as bran. Such being the case, the farmer 

 could use home-grovm corn, or corn and cob meal, in place 

 of an equal amount of bran, and, by feeding in addition a 

 few pounds daily of cotton-seed meal and malt sprouts or 

 flour middlings, get along with a minimum quantity of 2mr- 

 chased grain. 



Plan of the Exfperhnent. — The cows, ten in number, were 

 high-grade Jerseys. Eight had calved early the previous 

 autumn, and two, Pearl and Red 2d, the preceding Decem- 

 ber. 



The animals were divided as equally as possible into two 

 lots of five each, and both herds fed for two weeks upon the 

 so-called bran ration, consisting of silage, hay, cotton-seed 

 meal, flour middlings and wheat bran. In the second period, 

 lasting five weeks, one lot of cows, known as Herd I., con- 

 tinued to receive the same ration ; and the other lot. Herd 

 II., was fed the so-called silage ration, consisting of silage 

 and hay, cotton-seed meal, flour middlings and corn and cob 

 meal. In each of the two periods one week was considered 

 preliminary. 



