BRAN (OF. been, bran, bran; Welsh, Irish bran, husk, chaff). The outer coat of wheat, rye, and other cereal grains, separated from the flour in milling by bolting. Wheat-bran is often spoken of simply as bran, while r•e-bran, corn bran, rice-bran, etc., are usually referred to under their full names. Wheat-bran is exten sively used and highly prized as a feeding-stuff for nearly all kinds of farm animals. Fed with corn-meal (maize), the combination is hardly surpassed for cows, the bran furnishing not only the bulk, but the protein and ash which are necessary to milk-production. The other kinds of bran are much less abundant in quan tity, but are utilized quite generally for feeding purposes. The average percentage composition of different kinds of bran, from a large number of American analyses, is shown by the following table: Middlings, or shorts, contain sonic of the finer bran and coarse flour, although they are of the same origin as bran—viz., from the outer coat of the grain. They contain less fibre and ash
mineral matter than bran, and are considered better suited to pigs and horses.
The black woody hulls of the buckwheat-grain have little feeding value; hut the portion lying immediately under the hulls, which forms the middlings, is rich in protein and fat, and has a high feeding value. The hulls and middlings are often mixed and sold as buckwheat-bran, in which ease the proportion in which they are mixed determines the value of the bran.
Wheat-bran contains in 1000 pounds about 265 pounds of nitrogen, 290 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 160 pounds of potash. The same amount of rye-bran contains 230 pounds of ni trogen, 230 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 140 pounds of potash. Hence, in feeding these materials, the fertility of the farm is beingadded to if the manure is properly eared for and used. Bran is used in dyeing and in ealico-printing.