BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 25 
No. 2.—A Record of Results obtained on analyzing several 
Samples of American “Shorts” and “Middlings,” with Remarks 
on the Average Composition of Bran,* by F. H. Storer, Professor 
of Agricultural Chemistry. 7 
Tue refuse husk or skin of the grain left when wheat is ground and 
sifted to flour has often been commended as food for cattle, and is, in 
fact, very extensively used for that purpose, in spite of some miscon- 
ceptions and prejudices which still survive. In the American markets 
this so-called refuse product now holds a place as well assured as that 
of either of the grains. Enormous quantities of it are distributed every 
day to all parts of the country. I have thought it worth the while to 
have analyses made of a number of samples of tlie different forms of 
bran, taken from various localities, in order to determine whether any 
noteworthy diversities of composition, could be detected in the prod- 
ucts of different regions, and also for the sake of contrasting the aver- 
age composition of bran with that of the other kinds of fodder: with 
which it is likely to come into competition. 
In order to a clear understanding of the subject, the meaning of 
the terms “‘shorts,” “feed,” and “middlings” had better be first de- 
fined as well as may be. In point of fact, neither of the terms seems 
to have any very precise signification. At all events, they are used 
somewhat loosely in this vicinity. — | 
feed seems to be a generic name which may include any wheat 
product separated from flour by the bolting or sifting processes of the 
miller. It is, however, sometimes used synonymously with jine-feed, 
which term is generally restricted in Boston to a special kind of feed 
of homogeneous meal-like character, finer than shorts and coarser than 
middlings. | 
Shorts is the coarser part of the refuse separated from wheat in the 
process of making flour. The term “shorts,” as used in this vicinity, 
seems indeed to be absolutely synonymous with “bran,” as used in 
English literature and the language of every-day life. In this paper 
I regard the English bran, American shorts, French son, and German 
Kleie as synonymous. 
* This article was presented to the trustees of the Massachusetts Society for Pro- 
moting Agriculture, in January, 1873. 
VOL. I. 4 
