22 



The Purchase of Feeding Stuffs. 



distillery grains ; and, although consisting chiefly of 

 barley, they may contain other grains, as also maize. The 

 source from which the grains have been derived has 

 apparently no great effect on their composition, although 

 brewers' grains resulting from the manufacture of pale ale 

 are usually rather superior to those from stout. The average 

 analysis of dried grains is about 20 per cent, of albuminoids, 

 7 per cent, of oil, and 45 per cent, of carbohydrates. This 

 represents a composition not very dissimilar from linseed 

 cake ; and, judging from experiments, it may be assumed 

 that weight for weight the nutrient constituents of dried grains 

 are about equal to those of linseed cake. That the value of 

 dried grains is becoming more appreciated by farmers is 

 evident from their advance in market price during the past 

 few years. 



Judging from their appearance alone one would not be 

 inclined to credit dried grains with very high feeding pro- 

 perties ; they are, however, very nourishing and digestible, 

 and are greatly relished by cattle and sheep. They should 

 always be bought on a guarantee, as they offer considerable 

 temptation to adulteration with sweepings, bits of straw, and 

 other low-class material. 



A food very similar to the above is Malt Dust, Sprouts, or 

 Combings, often pronounced " Cummins/' which consists ot 

 the sprouts rubbed off barley malt. 



Comparing average samples of dried grains and malt dust, 

 the former is the superior food in about the proportion of 

 107 to 92 ; so that about 23 or 24 cwt, of malt dust are 

 equivalent in feeding value to 1 ton of dried grains. 



A very exhaustive series of practical feeding experiments, 

 both with cattle and sheep, has been conducted in this 

 country with dried grains, and almost without exception this 

 food has proved more economical than any other concen- 

 trated food or mixture of foods. Dried grains alone, or, 

 better still, mixed with decorticated cotton cake, have often 

 proved superior to linseed cake both for cattle and sheep. 



The Pulse Grains. — This term includes beans and peas ; 

 which must be looked upon as albuminoid foods. Excepting 

 that they are poor in oil (about 1 \ per cent.) they are somewhat 



