Preparation of Feeding Stuffs. 217 



tein in several common feeds, before and after cooking, with the re- 

 sults shown below: 



Uncooked Cooked 



Fresh corn meal 68.6 per cent 60.5 per cent 



Old corn meal 72.6percent 63.2percent 



Clover liay 67.T per cent 53.3 per cent 



Ck)tton-seed meal 87.7 per cent 73.8 per cent 



In each ease cooking lowered the digestibility of the crude protein. 



336. Steaming roughage for cattle. — As late as 30 years ago there 

 could be found in this country establishments more or less elaborate, 

 used for steaming or boiling straw, corn stalks, hay, etc., for cattle 

 feeding. It is doubtful if there is today a single establishment for 

 this purpose. Feeding steamed hay to oxen at Poppelsdorf, Germany,' 

 showed that steaming rendered the components of hay, especially the 

 crude protein, less digestible. When dry hay was fed, 46 per ct. of 

 the crude protein was digested, while in steamed hay only 30 per ct. 

 was digested. The advice given years ago by the editor of an agri- 

 cultural journal is as sound today as when given r ' ' The advantages 

 are very slight and not worth the trouble of either building the fire, 

 cutting the wood, or erecting the apparatus, to say nothing of all 

 these combined, with danger and insurance added." 



337. Cooking feed for swine. — While cooking feed for cattle was 

 abandoned years ago, it is still practiced to some extent for swine. 

 Fortunately the matter has been carefully studied by several experi- 

 ment stations and definite conclusions reached. The most extended 

 trial was one running nine years at the Maine Agricultural College, '^ 

 in which cooked and uncooked corn meal were fed. In each case there 

 was a loss by cooking. It is not going too far to say that the inves- 

 tigators of this subject usually began their studies in the full belief 

 that the common feeding stuffs would be improved by cooking. The 

 following are fair samples of the comments which commonly accom- 

 panied the reports of feeding trials with cooked and uncooked feed 

 for swine. 



Shelton* closes an account of his own findings with these words: 

 "The figures given above need but little comment. They show as 

 conclusively as figures can show anything, that the cooked com was 

 less useful than the raw grain. . . . Such entire unanimity of re- 



' Ilornberger, Landw. Jahrb., 8, p. 933 ; Armsby, Manual of Cattle Feeding, 

 p. 266. 



' Country Gentleman, 1861, p. 112. 



' Ann. Rpt. of Trustees of the Maine State Col. of Agr., 1878. 



* Rpt. Prof. Agr., Kan. Agr. Col., 1885. 



