March, 1921. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



121 



Ri'd l)o^' flour witli snl'lit^'iciit nf the finer shorts to 

 lighten it up and make a more suitable feed, and to 

 market it in the pure condition ([uite free from ground 

 screenings. 



In the larger mills operated under the long process 

 of milling, there remains an intermediate product which 

 is composed largely of fine particles of bran and which 

 they have been selling under the name of shorts. "With 

 this intermediate product they will include their mill 

 run ground screenings and sell it registered as a com- 

 mercial feeding stuff under guaranteed analysis. 



Tlie mills in eastern Canada obtaining wheat from the 

 large terminal elevators at the head of the lakes will 

 have shorts which contain about 12 per cent of ground 

 screenings. The flour mills in western Canada which 

 obtain their wheat before it is cleaned in the terminal 

 elevators will have shorts that may contain as much as 

 25 per cent, of ground screenings. The brand name 

 under which this jiroduct must be sold is prescribed in 

 the act to be "'shorts with screenings.'' About one 

 third of the feeding .stuffs by-products of the Canadian 

 flour mills will be absorbed in tlie manufacture of this 

 commercial feeding stuff. The other two-thirds will be 

 sold as pure bran and pure flour middlings. 



This arrangement seems to be satisfactory alike to the 

 live stock feeders and to millers. T.ype samples of these 

 products will now be sujiplied to each of the eight hun- 

 dred Canadian mills and to our inspectors, and we are 

 exjiecting that within another two months all Canadian 

 mills will be working to these standards in I'espect of 

 their by-products. 



The screenings problem is an important one to Can- 

 adian agriculture and the live stock industry. The 

 dockage set by grain inspectors amounts in some years 

 to an aggregate of I.IO.OOO tons. If properly handled 

 about 48 per cent, of this material is of excellent feed- 

 ing value. The balance has no actual known value for 

 feeding purposes. 



There is now established an optional standard of 

 ])rescribed qualit.v for Standard Recleaned Screenings. 

 Any purchaser wlio specifies in his order "Standard 

 Recleaned Screenings'' will receive with his delivery 

 documents a certificate from a grain inspector. If he 

 does not specify "Standard Recleaned Screenings" in 

 his order the grain inspector's certificate will simply 

 indicate "Elevator Screenings." 



Standard Recleaned Screenings are now selling at 

 ^\A pel- ton in car lots, Inilk, f.o.b. Fort "William. In 

 point of nutrition, experiments have shown them to be 

 e()ual to bran which is selling at $40 per ton. 



This special grade of screenings, howevei', will not 

 comply in its present condition with the provisions of 

 the Feeding Stuffs Act and may not be sold for feeding 

 jnirposes, lint may be suld for the purjiose of recleaning 

 and blending by any manufacturer of feeding stuffs. 

 hicluding any farmer who operates a grain cliopper and 

 nmnufactures his own feeding stuffs. Standard Re- 

 cleaned Screenings as a rule contain too large a per- 

 centage of mustard seeds to be sold as a feeding stuff 

 witiiout recleaning, and in that respect they are treated 

 the same as the lower grades of feed oats, containing 

 ([uite a large percentage of mustard seeds whicii are 

 injurious to the health of live stock. Both fee^l (>ats 

 and standard recleaned screenings are merchantable in 

 the ungi-ound condition, but must have tlie nuistard re- 

 moved before they can be sold as a feeding stuff. 



There would seem to be much need for a campaign 

 of education among farmers, in regard to feeding stuffs 

 and materials that are used in the manufacture of feed- 



ing stuffs. Probably few gi'aduates of Canadian agri- 

 cultural colleges would be able to differentiate, tliough 

 they had the samples before them, between different 

 grades of cottonseed or linseed products, or would be 

 able to identify several of the various by-i)roducts whicli 

 are now used as ingredients of feeding stuffs and which 

 come from oil mills, fish canneries and the like. 



A few years ago short courses in seed judging were 

 highly popular throughout most of the provinces. We 

 propose now to assemble and be prepared to distribute 

 for educational work, fairly complete collections of the 

 various kinds and grades of ingredients of feeding stuffs 

 that are more or less common in our Canadian market. 



Tgnorance is said to be the environment in wliich 

 fraud floui'ishes. We have had only six weeks of expe- 

 rience in the administration of the Feeding Stuffs Act 

 and we liave discovered much evidence of fraud, for 

 wlii(tli probably the environment is largely to blame. 



SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. 



Discoveries in Agriculture have been possible be- 

 cause the Department of Agriculture has had in its 

 employ a body of trained workers, scientists of the 

 highest order who devoted all their energies to serv- 

 ing the people. But the Department is now con- 

 fronted with a very tlifficult situation in the matter 

 of securing and retaining an adequate personnel. The 

 3*esearch work of the experiment stations, like that 

 of the Department of Agriculture, is fundamental. 

 Unless there comes from these institutions a steady 

 and abundant flow of new knowledge which can be 

 utilized to meet pressing problems, agricultural ad- 

 vancement will slow down and our system of agri- 

 cultural education, through colleges, schools, and 

 the extension service will deteriorate .... 



. . Agriculture is the greatest business and the 

 most fundamentally important industry, not only be- 

 cause of the amount of capital invested, the number 

 of people employed and the new wealth created an- 

 nually, but because it supplies the nation's food, 

 furnishes vast quantities of raw materials for the 

 manufacture of clothing and other necessary' commo- 

 dities, and contributes largely to the export trade of 

 the counti'y. 



(E. T. Meredith, Secy., U.S. 



Dept. of Agriculture.) 

 The Agricultural College that has. its feet upon the 

 ground is studying agriculture as a national industry, 

 and it is conducting a course of study whose backbone 

 is intended to train men for operating farms and 

 living in a country community. There are many de- 

 partures from this central idea, both as to lines of 

 stud.v and subjects of instruction, as well as of oeeu- 

 pational ends, but no one of these should be per- 

 )uitted to characterize the effort any more than a 

 railroad siding should be permitted to function as a 

 main track. 



For example, production of food is an occupation, 

 but farming is also a mode of life, and the farmer Ls 

 not only a citizen of the state but its most nearly 

 tyi)ical citizen. "Wherefore, a distinct line should 

 always run between the strictly technical, having to 

 do with the business of farming, and the non-tech- 

 nieal having to do primarily with the land. Both are 

 necessary, but each in its own field because the man 

 in a citizen sense is greater than his calling. 

 (Eugene Davenport, Dean of the 



College of Agriculture, Illinois.) 

 (Extracted from ""World Agriculture.") 



