2nd. Should you experiment with barley and malt, use equal money's worth of each, and employ the barley in a cooked state.
3rd. Use malt-combings as a feeding stuff, and not as a manure. They are good value for at least £3 10s. per ton.
4th. Bear in mind that a ton of barley contains more saline matter than an equal weight of malt; consequently, that stock fed upon barley will produce a manure richer in potash and phosphates than those supplied with malt.
Leguminous Seeds.—The seeds of the bean, of the pea, and of several other leguminous plants, are largely made use of as food for both man and the domesticated animals. They all closely resemble each other in composition, but in that respect differ considerably from the grains of the Cerealiæ, for whilst the latter contain on an average 12 per cent. of flesh-formers, beans and peas contain 24 per cent. The flesh-forming constituent of the leguminous seeds is not gluten, as in the grain of the cereals, but a substance termed legumin, which so closely resembles the cheesy matter of milk that it has also received the name of vegetable casein. Indeed, the Chinese make a factitious cheese out of peas, which it is difficult to discriminate from the article of animal origin.
Beans are used as fattening food for cattle, for which purpose they should be ground into meal, as otherwise a large proportion of their substance would pass through the animal's body unchanged. It is not good economy to give a fattening bullock more than 3 or 4 lbs. weight per diem; a larger proportion is apt to induce constipation. The very small proportion of ready-formed fat, the moderate amount of starch, and the exceedingly high per-centage of flesh-formers which beans contain, prove that they are better adapted as food for beasts of burthen than for the fattening of stock. Oats, Indian corn, or oil-cake, will be found to produce a greater increase of meat than equal money's worth of beans or peas, and I would therefore recommend the restriction of leguminous seeds, under ordinary circumstances, to horses and bulls. It has been stated, on good authority, that when oats are given whole to horses, a large proportion passes unchanged through the animal's body, but that on the addition of beans, the oats are thoroughly digested.
| COMPOSITION OF LEGUMINOUS SEEDS. | |||||
| Common Beans. | Foreign Beans. | Peas. | Lentils. | Winter Tares (foreign). | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | 13·0 | 14·5 | 14·0 | 13·0 | 15·5 |
| Flesh-formers | 25·5 | 23·0 | 23·5 | 24·0 | 26·5 |
| Fat-formers | 48·5 | 48·7 | 50·0 | 50·5 | 47·5 |
| Woody fibre | 10·0 | 10·0 | 10·0 | 10·0 | 9·0 |
| Mineral matter | 3·0 | 3·8 | 2·5 | 2·5 | 1·5 |
| 100·0 | 100·0 | 100·0 | 100·0 | 100·0 | |
Oil Seeds.—The seeds of a great variety of plants, such as the flax, hemp, rape, mustard, cotton, and sunflower, are exceedingly rich in oil, some of them containing nearly half their weight of that substance. Of these oil-seeds there are many which might with advantage be employed as fattening, food, although one only—linseed—has come into general use for that purpose.
Rape-seeds closely resemble linseeds in composition, but they are considerably cheaper. They contain an acrid substance, but the large proportion of oil with which it is associated almost completely disguises its unpleasant flavor.
Linseed is one of the most valuable kinds of food which could be given to fattening animals. Its exceedingly high proportion of ready-formed fatty matter, the great comparative solubility of its constituents, and its mild and agreeable flavor, constitute it an article superior to linseed cake. The laxative properties of linseed are very decided; it should therefore be given only in moderate quantities. As peas and beans exercise, as I have already stated, a relaxing influence upon the bowels, a mixture of linseed and peas or beans would be an excellent compound, the laxative influence of the one being corrected by the binding tendency of the other. Linseed being one of the most concentrated feeding stuffs in use, it will be found an excellent addition to bulky food, such as chaff and turnips. Linseed oil has been used as a fattening food, but there is nothing to be gained by expressing seeds for the purpose of using their oil as a feeding material. When hay is scarce, and straw abundant, the latter may be made almost as nutritious as the former by mixing it with linseed, and steaming the compound. A stone of linseed and two cwt. of oat-straw chaff, when properly cooked, constitute a most economical and nutritious food.
Mr. Horne, who experimented with linseed two or three years ago, obtained results highly favorable to the nutritive value of that article. Six bullocks were selected, and each animal placed in a separate box. They were fed with cut roots—at first Swedes, then mangels and Swedes, and lastly, mangels alone: in addition, there were supplied to each 6 lbs. rough meadow-hay reduced to chaff, and 5 lbs. oil-cake, or value to that amount. They were divided into three lots, two in each. Lot 1 had 5 lbs. oil-cake for each animal; lot 2, barley and wheat-meal, equal in value to the 5 lbs. oil-cake; and lot 3, an equal money's worth of bruised linseed. The oil-cake cost £10 16s. per ton, the mixture of barley and wheat £8 15s. per ton, and the bruised linseed £13 per ton. The experiment lasted 112 days, and at its close the results, which proved very favorable to the bruised linseed, were as follows:—