Uses op Screenings. 11 



consists largely of wild buckwheat and broken wheat, but there is 

 often a considerable sprinkling of broken flax and of the larger weeds 

 seeds, such as purple cockle, ball mustard, etc. Most of the buck- 

 wheat screenings so separated are used with cracked corn, Kaffir 

 corn, barley, wheat, sunflower seed, etc., as chicken feed, although 

 some of it is used in other ways. The seeds of wild mustard and 

 other species of Brassica are separated from the other weed seeds by 

 taking advantage of the fact that they are spherical and will 

 roll if placed on an inclined surface. Before the remaining fine seeds 

 are ready for grinding they have to be put through a reel to remove 

 the fine sand which would otherwise injure the rolls. 



The exact method and the thoroughness with which these seeds 

 are ground varies in the different mills. The grinding is usually 

 done by a combination of one or more rolls such as are used in flour 

 mills, or by an attrition mill. After each "break" (i. e., passage 

 through the roll or attrition mill) the material passes to a reel, which 

 removes the fine material and sends the coarse material on to the next 

 "break" to be still further pulverized. To reduce to a minimum the 

 possibility of the final product containing vital weed seeds, the mesh 

 of the wire gauze used in these reels should be sufficiently fine to pre- 

 vent the passage through it of the smallest weed seeds found in screen- 

 ings. 



These ground and bolted screenings are used in the manufacture 

 of molasses feeds, mixed with various other ingredients, such as cot- 

 tonseed meal, linseed meal, gluten feed, and molasses. Other mills 

 which handle screenings make only the above separations and grind 

 the fine black seeds to sell for use in molasseslFeeds, in medicinal stock 

 •foods> and occasionally for feeding in its natural condition. In its 

 natuKil condition: it does not make a palatable feed because of the 

 presence of certain seeds having a pui^ent or otherwise disagreeable 

 taste. The mixture of molasses with the feed tends to overcome this 

 difficulty, besides increasing greatly the carbohydrate content of 

 the ration. 



m WESTERN CANADA. 



The use which western mills make of their screenings depends 

 on the location of the miir^iS the composition of the screenings. T^e 

 fine seeds are usually sepaf^ted from the rest of the screenings atrd 

 disposed of: (1) by shipping them to the United States where they 

 are used in the manufacture of mixed dairy feeds; on account of heavy 

 freight rates this is seldom possible west of Moose Jaw. (2) By bunt- 

 ing them; on account of the high oil content of the black seeds 

 (lamb's quarters arid mustards) they burn readily and have consider- 

 able value as fuel. X?) By feeding to cattle and sheep in stofek 

 yards where it is not intended' to keep animals longer than a day or 

 two. (4) In a few places they hSve' l?een.-fed- to sheep kept'' in 

 enclosures over a period of six weeks of iiwoiriofithB.' '* 



Sometimes the whole screenings are'girqtiriH up together and sold 

 as hog and cattle feed. In Edmonton therfe" is a deiriand among faf- 

 81902—21 



