Barley is inferior in composition to wheat. As a feeding stuff, the English farmers assign to it a higher, and the Scotch farmers a lower, place than oats, which, perhaps, merely proves that in Scotland the oat thrives better than the barley, and in England the barley better than the oat. Barley-meal is extensively used by the English feeders, and with excellent results. Where barley-dust can be obtained it is a far cheaper feeding stuff than the meal. Barley husks should never be given to animals unless in a cooked or fermented state.
Oat Grain is, perhaps, the most valuable of the concentrated foods which are given to fattening stock. When it is cheap it will be found a more economical feeding stuff than linseed-cake, and, unlike that substance, can be used without the fear of adulteration. Oats are equal to wheat in their amount of flesh-forming matters; but their very high proportion of indigestible woody fibre detracts from their nutritive value. Oat-meal is more nutritious than wheat-meal; and oat-flour, especially if finely dressed, greatly excels wheat-flour in its nutrimental properties, because, unlike the latter, the finer it is the greater is its amount of flesh-formers. Bread made of oat-flour is very heavy, and is far less palatable than the bread of wheat. Oat-meal has been found to contain nearly 20 per cent. of nitrogenous matters. The white oat is more nutritious than the black, and the greatest amount of aliment is found in the grain which has not been allowed to over-ripen in the field. Oat husk is very inferior to the bran of wheat. Toppings are seldom worth the price at which they are sold.
Indian Corn has been highly extolled as a fattening food for stock, and its chemical composition would seem to justify the high opinion which practical men have formed of its relative nutritive value. In the United States, the feeding of horses on Indian corn and hay has been found very successful; but in these countries oats will be found a more economical food. For fattening purposes Indian corn appears exceedingly well adapted, as it contains more ready-formed fat—4·5 per cent.—than is found in most of the other grains, and, on an average, 70 per cent. of starch. Pigs thrive well on this grain. The Galatz round yellow grain is somewhat superior to the American flat yellow seed.
Rye is not extensively cultivated in this country, but on the Continent it is raised in large quantities. In the north of Europe it forms a considerable proportion of the food of both man and the domesticated animals. In Holland it is commonly consumed by horses, but in England there has always been a prejudice against the use of this grain as food for the equine tribe. It has been highly recommended for dairy stock, five pounds of rye-meal, with a sufficiency of cut straw, constituting, it is stated, a dietary on which cows yield a maximum supply of milk. Irish-grown rye contains less starch, and more flesh-formers and oil, than the Black Sea grain.
Rice, although it forms the chief pabulum of nearly one-third of the human family, is the least nutritious of the common food grains. Rice-dust, an article obtained in cleaning rice for European consumption, is said to promote the flow of milk when given to cows. It is sold in large quantities in Liverpool, where, according to Voelcker, it often commands a higher price than it is worth.
Buckwheat is chiefly used as a food for game and poultry.
Malted Corn.—During a late session of Parliament a Bill was passed to exempt from duty malt intended to be used as food for cattle. As feeders may now become their own maltsters, it may be of some use to them to have here a résumé of this Bill:—
1. Any person giving security and taking out a licence may make malt in a malt-house approved by the Excise for the purpose; and all malt so made and mixed with linseed-cake or linseed-meal as directed, shall be free from duty.
2. The security required is a bond to Her Majesty, with sureties to the satisfaction of the Excise, not to take from any such malt-house any malt except duly mixed with material prescribed by the Act.
3. The malt-house must be properly named upon its door.