The Purchase of Feeding Stuffs. 



23 



similar in composition to linseed cake. They are quite 

 different in composition from the cereal grains, which they 

 considerably surpass in feeding properties. The great estima- 

 tion in which beans and peas, in the form of meal, are held 

 for dairy cows is due to their producing a plentiful yield of 

 milk, and butter of superior quality. Where it is intended to 

 fatten cattle without cake or dried grains, some addition of 

 beans or peas to the concentrated food is considered desirable 

 by many farmers. 



Cereal Grains. — These include wheat, rye, oats, barley and 

 maize, which may all be grouped together as essentially 

 carbohydrate or starchy foods. They contain roughly 60 to 

 70 per cent, of carbohydrates, 10 per cent, of albuminoids, 

 and 2 to 5 per cent, of oil or fat. Maize is the most starchy 

 food in the market, and is always most appropriately fed 

 with a highly albuminoid food such as decorticated cotton 

 cake. As a concentrated food for general feeding purposes 

 a mixture of equal weights of these two foods can hardly be 

 excelled. 



Oats are considered the staple food of horses, but where 

 corn has to be purchased, a mixture of beans and maize will 

 often be found cheaper. Such a mixture, in the proportion 

 of about 2f of maize to one of beans, constitutes a food very 

 similar in composition to oats, and 16 cwt. of the maize-bean 

 mixture is about equal in feeding value to 1 ton of oats. 



The only stock to which wheat is, as a rule, given, is 

 poultry, and for this purpose it is unexcelled by any food 

 excepting, perhaps, short white oats. Maize is not a suit- 

 able food for fowls that are kept for egg-laying. The very 

 small quantity of lime, and the low percentage of albumi- 

 noids in maize, largely account for its unsuitability as a food 

 for young growing animals. 



Treacle.- — This is a substance that can often be made good 

 use of. It holds about fifty per cent, of sugar, and conse- 

 quently has considerable feeding value, and it is much 

 relished by cattle. Mixed with water, and used at the rate 

 of a pound per head per day to moisten chaff^ it is a very 

 useful addition to a diet, especially when roots are scarce. 



Cod-Liver Oil. — Although cod-liver oil has not yet taken a 



