7 o6 MAIZE 



CHAP, crush it more easily, and often to consume a larger quantity ; 

 XIV - (4) to grind into " corn-and-cob meal," or to shell and grind 

 into maize meal. 



663. Dryv. Soaked Maize.— By soaking, the grain is made 

 more easily masticable, though apparently less digestible. 



A trial was made in Germany of the comparative feeding 

 value of dry and soaked maize. Twenty sheep, nearly two 

 years old, were fed 1 4 lbs. of whole maize grain per head per 

 day, ten receiving the grain dry and ten receiving it soaked 

 with as much water as it would absorb. This was continued 

 for fourteen weeks. At the end of the trial the lot which had 

 received dry grain had increased 1 2' 1 lbs. per head more than 

 those which had the soaked grain. The investigators concluded 

 that the poor results obtained from the soaked grain were 

 due to decreased secretion of saliva {Mueller in Braunschw. 

 Landw. Zeit., 1885, p. 209; Jahresb. Agr. Chemie, 1885, p. 



576). 



Wolf (Landw. Jahrb. 16, 1887, Sup. Ill, p. 21, quoted 

 by Henry) found that in the case of healthy horses with good 

 teeth the utilization of beans and maize remained about the 

 same, whether fed whole and in dry condition, or after having 

 been soaked in water for twenty-four hours, with due pre- 

 caution in the latter case against loss of nutrients. 



Experiments at the Kansas Station (Bull. 4) showed 

 that steers fed with soaked maize did not consume quite as 

 much as the other lot, yet made a better gain ; there was a 

 saving of 1 5 per cent by soaking shelled grain. Where, how- 

 ever, pigs followed the steers, and got more than one-half of 

 their feed from the droppings, the droppings from the steers 

 which had dry maize gave the best results, and the saving by 

 soaking was only 5 per cent. 



664. Maize-and-cob Meal. — The unshelled ears of maize 

 are in many cases ground up with the cob. The resulting 

 product is known as " corn-and-cob meal " or " maize-and-cob 

 meal ". There is very little nutriment in the cob itself, which 

 consists largely of cellulose. On the other hand, pure maize 

 meal is too concentrated, lying heavily in the stomach, and 

 while in this state is not so easily penetrated by the diges- 

 tive fluids, whereas the particles of cob mixed with the meal 

 keep it looser and in a condition to be more easily digested. 



