“141 
Composition of Foods. 
By J. ©. BRUNNICH, 
Agricultural Chemist. 
A kNow1Enen of the comparative feeding value of the various foods used on a 
farm is of the greatest importance to every farmer. It is chiefly during the 
winter months that the scarcity of fodder is more severely felt, but this want 
would be somewhat relieved, if more attention: were given to foods which 
hitherto haye been used only to a. very small extent. One of the richest foods, 
which at present is hardly used at all in this colony, is cotton-seed meal, of 
which large quantities are produced as a by-product in the cotton-mill near 
Ipswich. Cotton-seed meal is of special value if it can be used in connection 
with other poorer feedstuffs. THxcellent results have been attained in various 
of the American experiment stations in using cotton-seed meal in connection 
with other foods for the feeding of cows, steers, &c.; and as much as 10 and even 
he of the meal per day were given, without having any ill-effects on the animals 
80 fed. c 
Another of. our by-products is molasses, which, although already used for 
the feeding of horses and cattle in the sugar districts, might be utilised to a 
far greater extent as cattle food.’ In the sugar districts molasses is generally 
_ inixed with chaff made from the green tops of sugar-cane, and this feed forms 
the principal diet of the horses and cattle during several months of the VeutenGe 
_ Dr. W. C. Stubbs read a paper before the Louisiana Planters’ Association, 
Sth April; 1897, which is reprinted in the Sugar Journal of the 15th June, and. 
in which he drew attention to the great value of molasses mixed with cotton- 
seed meal as a food. Our farmers should make trials with similar mixtures,’ 
but, as both these foods are rather laxative, I have to caution against starting 
with too large quantities at once; and should at any time the bowels of the’ — 
animals so fed become too loose, some good dry hay should be given to them. 
Other mixtures of food stuffs are easily made, according to what is readily 
obtainable. 
To enable the farmer to calculate the necessary quantities of various 
foods for his cattle, I give a table showing graphically the comparative 
value of the various principal foods, based chiefly on the researches made by 
Messrs. Dietrich and Konig. _ This table also gives the quantities of digestible 
food required for animals under different conditions according to Professor 
Wolff's feeding standards. The digestible matter in the various foods is 
not by any means identical with the composition, and not the whole of the 
nitrogenous substances (albuminoids, &c., flesh-formers), carbo-hydrates, and. 
fats (both producers of heat and- mechanical energy) given in the table 
are really digestible; also the digestive powers of different kinds of farm 
animals vary considerably. Bulky foods, as straw and hay, are always 
better digested by cattle, being ruminants, than by horses. Good lucerne 
hay and maize are equally well digested by horses and cattle. Pigs again 
possess a very considerable power of digesting foods. Cooking of foods does: 
not seem to be an advantage; with pigs especially dry foods seem better 
digested than foods cooked or soaked in water. Generally the only advantage — 
gained by preparing the food by cooking, steaming, &e., is to induce the 
animal to eat larger quantities of the food. ‘ 
