FEEDING STUFFS. A general term applied to all kinds of food materials used for farm animals, including so-called 'fodder,' forage,' and grain feeds. These materials are very diverse in character. They may be green, wet, or dry; the whole plant, as in the ease of hay; only a part, as in the ease of root crops; and the seeds of grains, or by-products from various manufac tories. They are vegetable for the most part, al though ground meat and bone and blood are used to some extent, especially in Europe, and the by products from the dairy—skim milk, buttermilk, and whey—find extensive use for young animals. The number and variety of feeding stuffs has in creased greatly in recent years. Formerly hay, corn fodder, straw, and the cereal grains consti tuted the main supply, but now the supply of home-grown and commercial feeding stuffs has become exceedingly varied, by the introduction and wide cultivation of a long list of field crops, such as millets. cow-pea, field peas, soy bean, vetch, rape, alfalfa, etc.; by the extensive pro duction of brans from the tlour•mills, oil cakes from linseed and cottonseed oil mills; and by numerous by-products from the manufacture of sugar. starch, breakfast foods, beer and malt liquors, which are prepared from corn and cereal grains. New kinds appear upon the market annually, and variations in the method of manu facture changes in the composition and eh:rraeter of the by•produet.
Feeding stuffs may be classified in a general way as (1) coarse fodders, also called 'roughage,' or 'roughness,' ii.cluding hays, straw, corn fodder, silage, and similar coarse materials, and (2) concentrated feeds, often referred to as grain feed or 'concentrates,' which include such materials as cereal grains, leguminous seeds, and the by products mentioned above. These elasses of feeding stuffs differ widely in composition, i.e. in the proportion in which the various nutrients are present. They all contain the same general groups of substances, namely, water, protein, fats, carbohydrates (starch, sugar, etc.), fibre, and ash. However dry a feeding stuff may be, it always contains a considerable amount of water, which can he driven oil by heat. The amount may be only 10 or 15 pounds per 100 pounds of materials, as in the case of dry fod ders, but in green fodders and silage it amounts to nearly 80 pounds, and in some root crops to 00 pounds per hundred. The rest of the ma terial, which contains the nutrients, is dry mat ter, and since the water varies so widely feeding stuffs are often compared on the dry-matter basis. Protein is the name of a group of ma
terials containing nitrogen; all other eonstitu fats, wax, the green coloring matter of plants, and other materials extractable by ether; hence it is usually designated as crude fat. The hydrates likewise include a variety of materials, and from the manner of their determination are usually designated in analyses as 'nitrogen-free extract.' The fibre or cellulose is also of this class, but, as it is determined separately, is usually so stated. The ash is the incombustible part of the fodder—the part left when it is burned. It consists chiefly of lime, magnesia, potash, soda, iron, and phosphates, and is used largely in forming bone. These constituents, ex cept the water, are called 'nutrients,' as they are the materials which nourish the body.
The comparison of feeding stuffs, or the pro portion in which these nutrients are present, is determined by chemical analysis. A very large number of analyse!; of American feeding stuffs have been made, and while they show that the same kind of material varies in eomposition, de pending upon the season, the stage of growth and other factors, the following table will serve to show the average composition of a number of the more important kinds: ents are non-nitrogenous or nitrogen-free. Al butainoids, the casein of milk, and lean meat are examples of protein. They are the 'flesh-formers' of the food. The fat includes, besides the real The protein is the most expensive nutrient, and the percentage of it largely determines the value of the more concentrated feeding stuffs. Another factor which influences the comparative value of feeding stuffs is the digestibility, or the propor tions of the several nutrients which are digested by the animal. The digestibility varies widely in the case of different materials. In the ease of corn-meal, for instance, 68 per cent. of the pro tein, 95 per cent, of the nitrogen-free extract, and 92 per cent. of the fat is digested, on an average; while in the case of wheat straw only about 23 per cent. of the protein. 50 per cent. of the nitrogen-free extract, and 35 per cent. of the fat is digested. The undigested portions are of no use in the nutrition of the animal, and are voided as manure. Tables of digestibility have been worked out, covering the more important feeds in general use. For these and further analyses of feeding stuffs, the reader is referred to compila tions published by the United States Department of Agriculture.