MAl^UAL OF OATTLE-FEEDINa* 841 



inals requires tlie addition to tlie " slump " of some dry 

 coarse fodder, like liay or straw. A poor cpality of coarse 

 fodder niay be rendered more palatable to cattle by satu- 

 aatiiig it wiili dibtillers' grains, and tluis tlxe wateriness of 

 the one fodder and the poverty of the other as regards 

 protein can be simultaneously corrected. 



Used in tins way, dibtillers' grains constitute a perfectly 

 healthful fodder. Much of the common prejudice against 

 the use of "distillery slops" appears to be occasioned by 

 their irrational application, and frequently by the lilthy 

 surroundings of the animal h, rather than by anything inju- 

 rious in the feeding-btuft itsell 



Malt Sprouts.— Another bye product of the breweries 

 is malt sprouts. In the preparation of malt, barley is 

 sprouted, and allowed to grow till the radicle attains a 

 length equal to about two-thirds that of the grain ; then 

 the process is stopped by drying the malt, and the radicles 

 cither fall off of themselves or are removed by winnow- 

 ing. These constitute malt sprouts; they are essentially 

 very young barley plants. Kow we have seen that, as a 

 general rule, the younger a plant is the larger is the pro- 

 portion of protein which it contains, and malt sprouts are 

 no exception to the rule. As will be seen from the table 

 in the Appendix, they contain about 24 per cent, of crude 

 protein, and have a nutritive ratio of 1 : 2.5. 



On the other hand, recent invest^ations have shown 

 that they contain a large proportion of amides, as was 

 indeed to be expected from what we already know of the 

 functions of amides in germination. Five samples ex- 

 amined by Kellner * gave, by Saehsse's method, the fallow- 

 ing results on the water-free substance: 



* Bicdermanu's Oentral-Blatt, Jahrg. 8, p. 417. 



