191 1.] Concentrated Feeding-stuffs. 305 



Oats are the staple concentrated food of horses, but may- 

 be replaced to some extent by beans, maize, barley, or mix- 

 tures of these grains. A mixture of beans and maize in the 

 proportion of about 2§ of maize to one of beans, constitutes 

 a food very similar in composition to oats, and may for general 

 purposes be used as a partial substitute. 



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. The very small quantity 

 of lime, and the low percentage of albuminoids in maize, 

 largely account for its unsuitability as a food for young 

 growing animals. When fed alone it also gives very unsatis- 

 factory results as a poultry food. 



Milling Offals. — In the milling of wheat for the pro- 

 duction of flour, a number of bye-products, commonly referred 

 to as "offals," are obtained, and these materials furnish an 

 important class of farm foods. They represent the outer 

 layers (other than husk) of the wheat kernel, and range in 

 character from a coarse bran to materials rich in floury 

 particles ("middlings "). There is considerable divergence in 

 the grading of these offals in different parts of the country, 

 but for general purposes they may be grouped into the three 

 classes of bran, sharps (or shorts) and middlings, the last- 

 named being the most like flour in character, whilst "sharps" 

 are intermediate between this and bran. 



These "offals" are extensively used upon the farm, the 

 finer grades being mainly used for pigs, whilst bran is every- 

 where used for all classes of stock, exercising a mild laxative 

 influence which considerably enhances its value. 



Rice Meal. — The material sold under this description 

 should be a rice bran, free from rice husk. The latter is met 

 with in commerce under the name of "rice hulls" or "rice 

 shudes," and so far from having any appreciable feeding 

 value, has actually an irritating effect upon stock, owing to 

 its richness in hard fibre (30 per cent.) and silica (18 per cent.). 

 Its presence in rice meals, increasingly prevalent of late years, 

 is therefore strongly to be deprecated. Genuine rice meal is 

 a highly digestible food, rich in oil and starch. The oil, 

 however, appears to be of low nutritive value compared with 



