38 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
which have been given above. It is perfectly fair, moreover, to class 
as “carbohydrates” all that portion of the woody fibre of vegetables 
which is easily disaggregated and dissolved by dilute acids; for the 
researches of a number of German investigators have shown that a 
large proportion of even the most compact forms of cellulose is di- 
gested without difficulty by animals, particularly by the ruminants. 
I have not found it easy to obtain any very precise estimates of the 
quantities of bran-products used in this vicinity as fodder for the dif- 
ferent kinds of animals. In Boston and in the adjacent cities very 
considerable quantities of shorts are fed to horses as an admixture in 
their daily ration of Indian meal or cracked corn ; in some cases even 
as an addition to oats. An occasional bran-mash is given by many 
hostlers in addition to the smaller daily allowance. In some stables, 
where Indian meal is fed to horses in conjunction with cut hay, a 
certain proportion of “ fine-feed ” is added to the mixture as a laxative 
agent. But, with this exception, it would appear that nothing but 
the coarse shorts or bran proper is fed to horses hereabouts. 
In Jamaica Plain, for example, the grain-dealers tell me that they 
sell as many as five bags of shorts for one bag of fine-feed and mid- 
dlings. In the country, on the other hand, a great deal of fine-feed, 
middlings, and mill or ship stuff is fed to milch-cows, and a certain 
amount of these products is given to swine also. But it is hard to 
determine in what proportions the materials are employed. Fine- 
feed is said to be preferred to middlings by many persons, for the 
purely mechanical reason that it can be mixed more readily than the 
latter with water or swill. In this immediate vicinity (Jamaica 
Plain) some fine-feed is bought of the local dealers to be given to 
growing animals, such as calves, but for milch-cows shorts are sought 
for. They are said to be used for mixing with brewers’ grains, large 
quantities of which, obtained from the Roxbury breweries, are used 
by the neighboring farmers. Some of the advantages to be gained by 
feeding bran-products to cattle in conjunction with straw and inferior 
grades of hay have been clearly set forth by Mr. E. W. Stewart in the 
Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture for 1865, 
p. 398. | 
It is worth noting in this connection that the ash of bran contains 
an unusually large proportion of phosphates (some fifty odd per cent 
