GLUTEN MEAL AND GLUTEN FEED. By-products resulting in the manufacture of starch or glucose from the starch of the corn-kernel. Their principal use is as a feeding stuff for farm animals. The by-product differs greatly in com position according to the process of manufacture which is followed. Gluten feed is the entire resi due of the kernel, including the germs and hulls. Gluten meal, cream gluten, and similar materials sold under a variety of trade names, do not con tain the corn-hulls. Some factories extract a part of the fat from the gluten meal; others mix the gluten meal with the hulls and germs, with out extracting the fat, and sell it as gluten feed. The dried products from the same factory vary considerably in composition from time to time, so that although a very large number of samples of gluten meal and feed have been analyzed by the experiment stations, no very reliable figures can be given for percentage composition. In general, the gluten meals are richer than the gluten feeds. These meals contain from 20 to 40 per cent. of protein, the average being about 30 per cent., and from 6 to 20 per cent, of fat, with an average of nearly 12 per cent. The car bohydrates constitute about 45 per cent., and
the fibre varies with the completeness of the separation of the hulls, rarely amounting to over three or four per cent. The gluten feeds usually contain about 24 or 25 per cent. of protein, al though the product from some factories has been below 20 per cent., and of others over 30 per cent. The fat varies less than in gluten meal, averaging about 10 per cent.; and the carbohy drates are higher, averaging over 50 per cent. Like other corn products, none of these materials contain much ash—less than 1 per cent. usually.
Gluten meal and feed are both quite digestible, from 85 to 90 per cent. of the protein, 90 to 95 per cent, of carbohydrates, and 85 to 95 per cent. of the fat being digested by ruminants. They are highly prized as feeding stuffs, espe cially for dairy cows, and are now very exten sively used over the northeastern part of the United States. Gluten meals, when fed to cows in considerable quantity, cause a slight softening of the butter, but give a product of good quality. Gluten meal is also a satisfactory feed for fatten ing steers, and for pigs.