POODS FOR USE m THE DAIRY. 135 



feed. The sweetness of the sprouts makes this feed ex- 

 ceedingly palatable, and cows thus fed consumed con- 

 siderably more, with a corresponding yield of milk of the 

 best quality, than with the same food without this addi- 

 tion. As the sprouts are light and very dry— a bushel 

 weighing only eight pounds — and are quite sweet, and 

 consequently are greedily eaten, they should never be fed 

 alone and dry, as they absorb a very large quantity of 

 water and swell proportionately; hence maybe injurious 

 to cows eating them in this condition. 



Rice Meal appears by its analysis to be a very rich 

 food, but either for milk or butter we never found it to 

 be worth its exceedingly high cost, viz., thirty dollars 

 per ton. We doubt very much the quantity of fat al- 

 leged by the analyses to be contained in this food. The 

 high price of this waste of the rice mills is said to be due 

 to the demand for it as an adulterant of cheap flour, 

 and other similar purposes. It would be a useful food 

 for horses if procured at twenty dollars per ton, but is 

 not a desirable dairy food. 



Palm Nut Meal, in our experiments, proved to be the 

 most productive food for butter. It costs thirty dollars 

 per ton, which is not profitable to the dairyman, and it 

 is difficult to procure. In an analysis of a lot purchased 

 by the author, the oil was found to amount to eighteen 

 per cent, and was of a very high yellow color. If, as I 

 there is reason to believe, oils in the food are assimilated 

 and pass into the milk without change in the digestive 

 process, the fine bland flavor and rich color of palm oil 

 ought to make this meal an excellent food. The cows 

 disliked it, and some wholly refused it. One cow in our 

 herd which took it readily and ate six pounds per day, 

 increased in the butter yield from nine pounds weekly to 

 twelve and a half. It is an unusual article on the mar- 

 kets and not easy to procure, otherwise we should prefer 

 it to cotton-seed meal at the same price. 



