pounds of grain for 100 pounds of gain, in addition to the bulky fodder. In our light ration experiments we obtained just about as large gains (in some cases quite as large), and it required only 310 pounds of grain for 100 lbs. of gain, which is less than a third of the amount given as the average amount in the United States. The experience of nearly all Our Canadian feeders at the present time, when the difference between the buying and selling price is SO small, is, that they must feed a light grain ration, or one comparatively low in protein and rich in carbo-hydrates, in order to make ends meet; and our best feeders here and elsewhere are feeding a light grain ration. I simply throw this out as a suggestion, and the matter is one which will bear further investigation. I know that the most expensive feeding we have ever had about this place was done by men who followed some of the old ideas, and dealt out the grain with a liberal hand. They all got gains in weight, and pretty large gains too, but when you came to reckon it out, you found that the animal had apparently not assimilated all its food, and that the gain in weight was expensive. So I say that, taking practical results and comparing them with the standards laid down, we are led to the conclusion that there must be something wrong. It seems to me that the case of the fattening steer is different from that of the dairy cow. In the former, the main thing we want is íat. We buy a steer that is pretty well grown, and practically all he requires is to have some fat put upon him, and, in producing fat, it stands to reason that a ration rich in carbo-hydrates should produce cheaper gains than one rich in protein, because the protein of the food is much more expensive to buy than the carbo-hydrates. I am fully convinced from practical results that there is something wrong about the standard laid down for fattening steers.

Among the concentrated foods given on the chart, corn is at the head of the list of grains as a fat former, because I believe that as a single food there is no grain that equals corn as a fat producer. In an experiment last winter where we fed blood meal with corn, we got no result from feeding blood meal. Corn is rather low in protein as compared with barley, rye, and wheat, but it is rich in carbo-hydrates. It is rather poor in ash or bone-forming material, and is therefore not a satisfactory ration to feed largely to growing animals. Something else is required to supply the muscle and bone forming materials.

Corn and cob meal is naturally a little lower in digestible matter, but the ground cob mixed with the corn has given satisfactory results in feeding. In many experiments it has given as good results as the pure corn meal. The explanation is this: the pure meal is of a heavy, close nature, and is a little more difficult to digest than when it is mixed with the more bulky material of the ground cob. In any case, I think a food like corn should be lightened up with something such as oats or bran, to overcome that objectionable feature.

In all cereal grains there is a similarity of composition. Oats are rather low in carbo-hydrates, due to the fact that the hull contains much woody fibre. The amount of fat is comparatively high, higher than in wheat, rye, or barley. Rye comes between wheat and barely in feeding value; it is a little lower in carbo-hydrates, protein and fat than wheat, but a little higher in these constituents than barley.

Peas are rich in protein and also fairly rich in carbo-hydrates. A good many are surprised at the small amount of fat in peas, and think there must be something wrong in the analysis. You can easily see the reason for it: it is not the fat alone that is concerned in fat production. but the carbo-hydrates also produce fats, and so does protein.

Pasture grass is very nearly a balanced ration for a dairy cow.

Flax seed is a food that is badly out of balance. If you compare it with cotton seed meal and oil cake, you will see that in all of them there is too much protein and fat,

and too little carbo-hydrates. Consequently we have here suitable foods to mix with foods poor in protein. That is the reason why cotton seed meal is so valued by dairymen-because it brings up the protein content when mixed with ensilage, etc. It is a good food to combine with one that is poor in protein.

Gluten meal is also rich in protein and fat. The term gluten meal is rather loosely employed. Gluten meal is a by-product from starch factories, but we have a by-product from those factories which is not true gluten meal. The true meal has all the bran of the corn removed, but the gluten meal from some of our factories contains the whole of the by-product from the corn, and should preferably be called gluten feed. It is a valuable food, but not so valuable as gluten meal.

As a food to balance the ration of a dairy cow and increase the protein, bran is better than middlings, but for pigs, middlings forms a much more valuable food.

Oat hulls are rather poor in digestible matter, but oat dust compares favorably with bran in this respect. The trouble with these products is to determine what they really contain. Take oat dust; you never know how many hulls you are getting mixed with it; it will vary so much with different mills.

Q. Is oat dust ordinarily known as black dust?

Prof. Day: Yes; I believe so.

Q. We have on the market a white dust and a black dust; the white seems to be a meal.

Prof. Day: I have been unable to find any table giving digestible constituents of white oat dust.

Q. There is a difference in the market price, the black dust being $10 per ton, while the white is often over $20.

Mr. Graham: We use white dust in the poultry department, costing about $1.30 per hundred.

Prof. Day: As regards malt sprouts, the complaint is that it is not a very palatable food, and only a small amount can be used, otherwise it is a valuable food in balancing a ration.

Brewers' grains, dry, are also rich in digestible matter. The wet grains have a large proportion of protein to carbo-hydrates, but also a large amount of water, and I assume that the reason they have given such good results in milk production is due to the fact that, where fed in considerable quantities, they help to balance the ration, as they contain so much protein in proportion to carbo-hydrates. that they tend to ferment in the mangers, and therefore in the stable.

One difficulty with them is cause an unsanitary condition

about the same as oil cake, and

The Soy bean is exceedingly rich in protein, richer in fat than oil cake. It is a very concentrated, rich food, and where it can be grown advantageously, would be a most valuable food in balancing a ration.

As regards the bulky foods, you will observe that fodder corn dried in the field is very similar in protein content to timothy hay, and is somewhat similar in general composition.

Oat straw has a considerably higher feeding value than wheat straw. Barley straw comes between the two. Pea straw of good quality is rich in protein, and contains more digestible matter than oat straw.

Mangels, turnips and sugar beets are practically the same in protein content. In feeding dairy cows, in two experiments here, we got just as good results from mangels as from sugar beets, but for fattening purposes we should expect better results from sugar beets, as they contain more carbo-hydrates. While the chart shows turnips to contain more dry matter than mangels, I may say that this is very variable, depending very much on the season.

Artichokes are higher in feeding value than potatoes, and Mr. Brethour, whom I see is present, has had excellent results from them as a food for hogs. Pumpkins have about the same protein content as turnips and mangels, and are of somewhat similar feeding value.

Rape, compared with green clover and blue grass, contains more water. The total amount of food it produces per acre is very considerable.

If you compare Kentucky blue grass with the ordinary mixed grasses, you will see why it is so highly esteemed for fattening cattle where cattle are fattened on pastures --because it contains a higher percentage of digestible matter for a green food.

Last year in our experiments we used tankage and blood meal. Our Canadian houses sell these products as fertilizers, but they are not prepared for feeding purposes. That which we obtained from Swift & Co., of Chicago, had been put through a special process to purify it, and hogs are very fond of it. As you will see, it has a very high food value, and I think it is a pity that our packers sell this material for fertilizing purposes.

We conducted several experiments with blood meal and tankage in feeding hogs. One lot of hogs fed on blood meal, barley, and middlings, the blood meal being valued at $45 per ton, and the grain at $20, made gains at a cost of $4.16 per hundred pounds. Another lot was fed tankage (valued at $30 per ton), with grain, and made 100 pounds of gain, at a cost of $4.24. A second lot fed the same ration made gains in weight at a cost of $4.05 per hundredweight. In comparison with this, we fed two lots of hogs grain and skim milk, the latter being valued at 10 cents per hundredweight. These lots cost $5.40 and $4.78 respectively for one hundred pounds of gain.

I think these are most valuable foods for young pigs, especially where skim milk is not available, and we intend to conduct further experiments in this direction. Q.: Have you not placed a low value on skim milk?

Prof. Day: Yes, I wanted to give it a low valuation, but even when valuing it at only ten cents per cwt.. the cost of gain ran a good deal higher than in the other

groups.

Q: Was it a summer experiment?

Prof. Day: Yes; and the packer's report stated that all the pigs were first class as regards firmness. They had been fed a little green food, grass, etc., every day, by way of variety, but not enough to count in the results.

J. H. Grisdale, B.S.A., Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa: Alfalfa is a crop that is being neglected somewhat in this country. It may be grown almost anywhere in Ontario, and in many parts of the other Provinces. We have grown it successfully at Ottawa, and it has given excellent results as a food for cattle, sheep, and swine. The trouble in the past has been to get a good catch. That may be overcome by careful seeding and preparation of the land beforehand. One must not think that because it is one of the clovers, it may be grown in any kind of a field without proper preparation. On the contrary, it requires very careful preparation. Once it has been made to catch. it will stand for some time, and leave the soil in much better condition.

Prof. Day did not refer to the value of sugar beets in feeding hogs. They are of great value for that purpose. They must be fed judiciously, however, or they may cause soft bacon. In our experiments we have had exceptionally good results with them.

No food we have used for hogs has given such good results as rape. I think it should be fed more extensively, and fed to different classes of cattle than at present. For beef production, or for young cattle, it cannot be surpassed, especially in the fall, when it may be grown to great advantage, as it may be sown upon stubble after the grain is harvested, and will yield a good crop under fair climatic conditions, furnishing pasture

There is no

in the latter part of September and all through October and November. food that will pay better for the money and the trouble it takes to cultivate it, thau rape. For milk production the same thing applies. I do not want to recommend it too strongly for use with dairy cows, but a few farmers in our district have been using it for that purpose, and declare that they have never fed any forage plant that could compare with it as an economical milk producer. I have found that turnips have given better results in milk production than mangels, but there is a danger of their giving an objectionable flavor to the milk.

Prof. W. J. Spillman: Any of the ordinary crops which affect milk may be fed with impunity if they are fed to the cow immediately after you get through milking; but you must not feed them within eight hours previous to milking. If turnips are fed within a few hours of milking, they will flavor the milk, but you can feed all the turnips you want to if you feed immediately after milk ing.

Mr. Grisdale; Dried sugar beet pulp is a product which is now being placed upon the market in this country, and demands attention. It contains a high per cent. of dry matter, and to it is added about forty per cent of dry molasses. It makes a very palatable food, and seems to agree with the cattle and has a good effect on their appetites and digestive organs. We have been able to feed eight pounds per day without any injurious effects. It costs $10 to $12 per ton. Molasses is also fed in liquid form, but one has to be careful not to feed too much.

In the concentrated foods, Prof. Day mentioned gluten meai and gluten feed, and pointed out how much these foods varied in their constituents. In Eastern Canada we have the real gluten meal. The average gluten food from Ontario tests only 34 to 36 per cent. protein, and contains the hulls, or the bran, and the sweepings. We have fed gluten meal very extensively, and I may say that I think it should be used more extensively, only I am afraid that if so used the price would likely be raised. A few years ago it could be purchased at $10 per ton-to-day it is $25.

This raises a point that is worth discussion, and that is the importance of knowing exactly the contents of these by-products, such as gluten meal, oat dust, oat hulls, etc. Each manufacturer of these by-products should be required by the Government to place upon the sacks containing the foods, an analysis of the contents, just as is required in the case of plant foods, which we never think of buying without knowing what they contain. It would cost a little, but the cost would be as nothing in comparison with the good that would result from being able to select that food which is most easily digested and is the richest in the elements of animal food.

Q: How does corn bran compare with wheat bran?

Mr. Grisdale: It is not nearly so rich in protein or in carbo-hydrates.

Prof. Day: In the case of the blood meal and tankage, I forgot to mention that it is guaranteed to contain 60 per cent. protein for tankage and 87 per cent. protein for blood meal, so that the purchaser knows exactly what it contains.

Prof. W. J. Spillman: I wish to emphasize one point the last speaker made, and that is as to the importance of alfalfa. It is a new crop in this section and in the Eastern States, but it has always been the leading hay crop in the Western States. There was 2,000,000 acres of alfalfa grown in 1899. Since then the area has been much increased, and in the Eastern States we have begun to think that it is the most important hay crop we can grow. I am not surprised to learn that you can grow it here. because it grows readily in Michigan and Wisconsin, which are farther north. In Onondaga County, N.Y., alfalfa has been the standard hay crop for fifty years.

As to the best ways of utilizing that crop, I may say that it is essentially a hay crop. It will give three crops a year, and when once well established on land fairly free from weed seed, it is good for a long time, unless you should happen to have

a very unusual winter to kill it out. There is a field in Onondaga which is said to have been sown 42 years ago, and still has a pretty fair stand of alfalfa. In no way will it yield a larger return than as a pasture for hogs. A great many of the farmers in our country are doing this, and are making very large returns. I know one who kept ten head of hogs to the acre of alfalfa, and they were not able to keep it down, and he cut it for hay once, and got a ton to the acre. It is possible to grow good large hogs on alfalfa without any other food, but the best results have been obtained from feeding a small amount of some other food along with it, such as corn. I would feed about two ears per day to hogs pastured on alfalfa. In our country we can produce hogs at less than three cents live weight on alfalfa and corn.

I want to urge the importance of another point suggested, and that is of having some way of knowing the composition of these meal products. Every year they become more and more important as feeding stuffs, for the reason that manufacture is on the increase, and these by-products are becoming more plentiful and more numerous in variety. Almost every year sees a new kind put upon the market. They vary a great deal. Some millers in our country, and I assume it is the same here, add the bran and the dust from the floor sweepings, saying that dust is one of the by-products. A number of our State Governments require that these products be guaranteed; that is, there must be placed on every package a tag showing the composition, which they guarantee. It is an excellent law, and might well, I think, be adopted here.

Mr. W. P. Gamble, B.S.A.: In analyzing these by-products. we have found that they vary very widely in composition. We obtained a sample of oat dust from a mill, and found it contained 8.12 per cent. protein and 37 per cent. fat. A year later we took a second sample from the same mill, and found it contained 12 per cent. protein and 2.99 per cent. fat. The same variation occurs in the case of oat hulls, gluten meal, and other products of a similar nature.

Many stock foods contain high percentages of ash, which is largely the potassium salts, which are not valuable constituents and are hard on the excretory organs, and it is therefore not desirable to feed such foods to any great extent.

Mr. de Coriolis: Reference has been made to sugar beet pulp. This pulp used to go out from the factory containing 90 per cent water, and with such a large amount of water, the cost of transportation was too high in proportion to the value of the feed. This year, however, one factory has installed a drying plant, which has reduced the moisture to three per cent. The composition of the pulp is then as follows:

It is rather high in fibre and low in ether extract, and the manufacturers thought of improving it by having the pulp absorb crude molasses. It then has the following com

This is a great improvement. The reason I bring this to the attention of the meeting is that there is a large amount of this pulp being produced. There are four sugar factories working in Ontario, which, combin ed, will use 100,000 tons of beets each season, and half of that amount will go out as pulp with ninety per cent. of moisture. If all this pulp were dried, the output would still be very large, and would have to find a market, and it is important to know its composition and its value as a cattle food. 4 E. U.