Condimental or Stock Foods. 221 



time for taking their rations. For liorses which are extremely hard 

 worked and spend much of their time away from the stable, most of 

 the grain should be ground and mixed with a small allowance of 

 moistened chaffed hay. Ordinarily horses can grind their own oats 

 and corn, and idle horses should always do so. Steers Avith pigs fol- 

 lowing usually give the most economical returns from ear corn, husked 

 or unhusked as best suits them. (523) When no pigs follow and where 

 a high finish is required, necessitating a long period of feeding, the 

 use of meal, especially during the latter stages of fattening, will 

 usually prove economical. A cow yielding a large flow of milk should 

 be regarded as a hard-worked animal, and her feed should usually 

 be prepared by grinding. Sheep worth feeding can always grind 

 their own grain. 



III. Condimental or Stock Foods. 



Proprietary articles styled "stock foods," ''seed meals," "condi- 

 tion powders," etc., costing from 10 to 30 cents or more per lb., are 

 extensively advertised and sold to American farmers. "WoU of the 

 Wisconsin Station,^ after ascertaining the amount of stock foods sold 

 in three counties in W^isconsin, estimates that the farmers of the state 

 pay annually about $300,000 for 1,500 tons of such material. Michel 

 and Buckman of the loM^a Station- estimate that Iowa farmers paid 

 $190,000 for stock foods in 1904. (445, 893) 



343. Composition of stock foods. — The better class of stock foods 

 have for their basis such substances as linseed meal or wheat mid- 

 dlings, while the cheaper ones contain ground screenings, low-grade 

 milling offal, the ground bark of trees, etc. To this "filling" is 

 added a small per cent of such materials as common salt, charcoal, 

 copperas, fenugreek, gentian, pepper, epsom salts, etc., with or with- 

 out turmeric, iron oxide, etc., for coloring. The stockman is told that 

 a tablespoonful of the compound with each feed will cause his stock 

 to grow faster, fatten quicker, give richer milk, etc., etc. Tests of 

 many of these stock foods by the experiment stations support the 

 view of Sir John Lawes, the world's greatest investigator in scien- 

 tific and practical agriculture, who, after carefully testing the stock 

 foods then being sold in England, w'rote:^ "In conclusion, I feel 

 bound to say that I require much clearer evidence than any that has 

 hitherto been adduced, to satisfy me that the balance-sheet of my 

 farm would present a more satisfactory result at the end of the year, 



^ Bui. 151. ^ Bui. 87. ' Rothamsted Memoirs, Vol. II. 



