58 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Feeds Low in Protein. 



Very few farmers can afford to buy feeds low in protein 

 and high in carbohydrates at any price at which they have been 

 or are Hkely to be offered. The farmer should grow all the 

 coarse feeds that he needs. Oat and similar feeds are very 

 much like corn stalks or oat straw in composition. Some of the 

 feeds have cottonseed or other nitrogenous feeding stuffs added 

 to them so that they carry more protein than straight oat feeds, 

 but these mixtures are always more expensive sources of pro- 

 tein than are the glutens, cottonseed and linseed meals. One 

 hundred pounds of an ordinary oat feed has from eight to eleven 

 pounds protein. At seventy-five cents per hundred the protein 

 costs from seven to nine cents a pound. One hundred pounds 

 of a good gluten meal has from thirty-four to fortv per cent of 

 protein. At $i.io per hundred the protein costs about three 

 cents a pound and it not only costs less than half as much but 

 it is better digested. As a source of protein, it would be as 

 good economy to pay $60.00 a ton for high grade cottonseed 

 meal as to pay $15.00 a ton for the ordinary oat feed. 



A number of samples of different oat feeds have been exam- 

 ined. For the most part guarantees are based upon single anal- 

 yses of the feeds and the goods usually are not quite as good as 

 the sample upon which the guarantee rests. With the exception 

 of the American Cereal Company's Quaker Oat Feed none of 

 these materials are much below and some run above the guar- 

 antee. 



Blatchford's Calf Meal. 



This is a manufactured food only one lot of which was found 

 by our inspectors. This was not guaranteed but carried 33.44% 

 protein and 5.23% of fat. In some advertising matter connected 

 with Blatchford's calf meal it is claimed that 12.8 pounds of it 

 has three and one-half pounds of protein which is about twenty- 

 seven and one-half per cent. A sample of these goods sent by 

 a dealer to the Station in September analyzed as follows : 



Water, 7.70% ; ash, 5.46% ; protein, 25.63% ; crude fiber, 

 5.28%; starch, 18.24%; undetermined carbohydrates, 32.13%; 

 fat, 5.56%. It will be observed that the goods as evidenced by the 

 official sample and this lot sent to the Station are very uneven 



