The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-10-25
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Bran rs FeOd and as q Fertilizer.
BY ALEXANDER HYDE.

despised and much undervalued outer
coating of wheat and other grains,
which millers so carefully separate from
the inner, finer, and fairer portions
Bran has a coarse, dark look, but, like
a singed cat, it is better than it looks.
1t has long been condemned to humble
uses, and we do not expect that the
prejudice against it on account of its
color and coarseness can easily be
uprooted. DR.. Graham made siren
uous effort, forty years since, to induce
the people to eat unbolted -four, and
proved conclusively that in this form
it was not only more healthy but more
nutritious; still nine persons out of ten
prefer snow-white bread. Among the
thinking and intelligent, Graham bread
is slowly gaining position, but it is
rarely found on the tables of the lower
classes.
The nutritive value of all food de-
ponds much upon the amount Of gluten
which it contains, as this is the sub
stance which goes to form muscle. The
proportions of gluten in whole grain,
bran, and fine flour are as follows
Whole grain, II per cent; bran, IA per
cent; fine -four, 10 per cent. BY sitting
out the bran we, therefore, render the
-four less nutritious as we'll as less
wholesome. As bran constitutes from
one-eighth to one-fourth of the whole
weight of wheat, ON the average one
sixth, there is great waste of muscle
forming material by boiling. True, it
NAV 90 for the neurshment of inferior
animals, but it sells for less price, does
less good, and thus is drawback on
the just profits of the farmer.
As compensation for this loss in the
sale of his wheat and -four, the farmer
should use all his bran in feeding his
stock, and if he purchases the bran of
his neighbors, those who live in Illinois,
or California, or any other country
where manure is nuisance, both his
stock and his farm will be benefited.
Wheat bran may not put as much fat
on cattle as does corn-meal, as it does
not contain SO much starch and oil, but
it will produce more muscle and more
bone. We have seen that it contains
more gluten muscle materially than fine
flour, and if we burn any given weight
of bran aud fine meal, we shall find
that the amount of ash Ozone mate
riaD is at least six times as much in
the former as in the latter. As it is
this inorganic matter which is SO much
needed on our old soils, farmers can in
no more economical way renovate their
old lands than by feeding bran heavily
to their stock We know some farmers
in Massachusetts who feed to their
cows, both Summer and Winter, from
four to eight quarts of bran daily, and
get great returns not only In the IN
creased flow of milk, but in improved
pastures and meadows We have look
ed over the pastures of some of these
bran-feeding farmers, and are satisfied
that there is no better mode of rcnova-
ting them. Bran furnishes just the
compensation that the pastures need,
for the phosphates and sulphates of
lime, potash, and soda, which have been
removed from them in the from of milk
and bones. By feeding it during the
Summer to cows, they scatter it in their
excrements over the pastures without
any expense to the farmer
If the cows are found to lose flesh
(fat) under bran diet, mix with the
bran one-third, or one-half corn-meal.
In the Winter we should recommend
mixing meal with the bran for a regu-
lar diet, as the highly carbonaceous
character of meal tends to furnish
warmth to the animal Fed alone, and
in large quantity, meal produces too
inhammatory condition, tends to gar
get and other inflammatory diseases,
and runs the cow through life to fast.
Bran acts as an antidote to this inflam-
matory tendency in meal, and while
stimulating a great flow of milk, keeps
the animal in good health, and prolongs
her usefulness to good old age. If
oil-cake, or cotton-seed meal is fed to
Young cattle or milch cows, there is
still greater necessity for miying some
bran with their feed, as these sub
stances furnish carbon in a more con-
centrated form than does meal, and
consequently act on the animal much
as abundance of coal and strong draft
do on furnace-they burn it up quick
ly A COW driven to the top of her speed,
with oil-cake, cotton-seed meal, or even
corn meal cannot be expected to last
many years. Roots OF bran must tenn
per such high feeding.
We notice that some of our tobacco
growers are experimenting with corn
meal as a manure for the weed, and re-
port good success 1t seems like a
waste to convert grain into tobacco,
but, if it must be done, we advise the
tobacco growers to use bran instead of
meal. Tobacco is great exhauster of
the inorganic constituents of the soil.
1t is manifest to the most careless oh
server that tobacco, when burned, fur
nishes large amount of ash We see
this every time we notice man with
o cigar or pipe in his mouth. This ash
must come from the soil 1t is of the
earth, earthly. That which passed off
into the air in the form of smoke and
SdpOl, HAY COIHc HUH tHC ali an,
but the ash has no ethereal origin
Now bran abounds in this same earthly,
or inorganic matter. Johnston's analy
sis of wheat-bran gives 7.3 per cent of
saline matter, while corn-meal will
hardly average one per cent, The oil
Of corn-meal is of comparatively little
use as fertilizer. 1t is simply carbon.
substance abundant in most soils, and
in the form of carbonic acid, consttu-
ting $4,000 part of the weight of the
atmosphere. Therefore, if we must
use grain in the cultivation of tobacco,
we say by all means save the meal, and
use wheat shorts, and we should recon-
mend feeding both these articles to
stock, and then using tie manure in
preference to applying either meal or
bran directly to the soil.
Not many experiments have been
tried in the use of meal or bran as fer
tilizers, but those that have been tried,