STUDYING FEEDING VALUES 87 



What IS scientifically called " nitrogen-free-extract," 



I have headed simply " energy makers." These analyses 

 are for "fresh, or air-dry " materials. 



Please note that in the mind of each feeder need to 

 be niches wherein are kept the several food groups. 

 One group is the clovers, the key interest of which is 

 that, when dried, they run from 10 to 15 per cent pro- 

 tein, white clover being the highest, the cowpeas (a near 

 relative) next. These also furnish necessary roughage, 

 averaging from above one fifth to above one fourth fiber. 

 A second group is the high-protein grains, those running 



II and 12 per cent and upward. Special localities have 

 shown the higher averages. Among these are Tennessee, 

 Virginia, Colorado, and Indiana wheat (see Government 

 Handbook), Colorado wheat, under 50 analyses, aver- 

 aging above 13 per cent. Massachusetts sweet corn 

 runs well toward 13 per cent protein. A third group is 

 the high-fiber stuffs, including buckwheat, soy beans, 

 cowpeas, rye, and oats ; barley meal, buckwheat bran, 

 and malt sprouts are extra high, because the mill stuffs 

 and wastes contain more than their natural proportion 

 of hulls. Such poor stuffs as rice hulls and cottonseed 

 hulls are more than one third rough fiber, — the latter, in- 

 deed, nearer one half, — while corncob meal is nearly 

 as high. These are, I consider, entirely too rough and 

 coarse to use as feed for fowls, even though they average 

 above 4 per cent of protein content. 



An important group is that of the extra high-protein 

 vegetable products, most of which are mill stuffs, ground 

 and sometimes sold in combinations. This group will 

 include, from the cereals, gluten feed, linseed meal (new 

 process preferred because containing less fat), buck- 



