Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-03-25
VALUE OF BRAN.
An Old-Fashioned Food Which Retains
Most of It's Merits.

! MOST Oh 1tS MeEltSs
Bran is an old-fashioned food. and
has been used for cattle and horses
longer than the oldest inhabitant can
remember. The old horse books men,
ton the bran mash as most useful
food and medicine combined, but
curiously for the strange and incon-
sistent reasons that it was strengthen
ing, nutritious and digestible, and also
that as the scales Of it passed through
the bowels they scraped the menu
branes clean, removing foul humors
and crude matter, and acting thus as
an excellent cleansing laxative. Our
old progenitors were right in the main.
for bran is certainly nutritive and di-
gestible, and also laxative as well, but
not precisely in the rough way they
But, like many other things. bran
varies exceedingly in its character and
composition, and is very rarely the
same in any two cases. 1t is the outer
coat-the pericarp-Of the wheat
grains, and as wheat differs exceeding
ly, so does the husk of it, for the husk,
OF which the greater part of the bran
consists, is chiefly the part of the wheat
in which the greatest differences exist
There are soft white wheats, as
the Diehl, Soule's and white Medi-
terranean, chiefly known for their soft,
thin skin, containing small ! rOpOr-
ton of silica as compared with others,
and rich in heterogeneous compounds
and oil; the amber wheats, as Ciawson,
Treadwell, Arnolds and OF lers, whose
husk is more siliciors AMI harder than
that of the white varieties; the red
wheats, of which thu old-fashioned red
Mediterranean is Il type, having thick.
heavy bran, dark in color, and
very starchy, and the hard spring
wheats, which have a very light
husk and undercoat rich in sill
lea and nitrogen, and all these
differences affect the bran chiefly.
Then the processes of milling affect
the character and quality of bran quite
as much as the differences of the grain.
The old process ground up the bran
with the flour, and it was bOlted out
along with the cOarser part of the mid
dlings. The whole husk, with its sew
eral layers containing the oil cells, the
nitrogen and the phOsphates, were
ground together, and with the starch
of the inner coats formed a mixture in
which were the best parts of the grain,
and made rich, nutritious, and di-
gestible food. This was the bran of our
younger days, which was justly consid-
e1ed as most healthful and strength
ening food; one which fattened the
horses and gave them the sleekest coat,
improved their wind and gave them
strong fine bone, and which doubled
the milk and enriched the butter, and
was the Standby of the dairyman.
Now, in the course of improvement
we have scores Of varieties of wheat
and a process of milling which changes
all this, and a result of which is that
bran varies in weight from nine to
eighteen pounds per bushel, and in its
heterogeneous and most valuable ele-
ments from eleven to tifty-eight per
cent. These being the facts. it is clear
that ''bran is BRAN no longer, but
substance which has to be studied and
understood and used with knowledge
and judgment, otherwise it may bring
disappointment to the purchasers of it
and get into discredit.
Nevertheless bran is always excel
lent food, as it contains the most valu-
able elements of nutrition, the most
requisite aliment to build up strong,
healthy animal frame and to produce
the most valuable animal products,
viz. flesh, fat, milk and butter. The
demand for it increases constantly,
and its market value rises steadily.
The discovery of process for COM
pressing it into cakes, so that it can be
easily and cheaply transported, will
still further enhance its market value,
because English purchasers will soon
compete with American farmers in
their eagerness to secure all they pos
sibly can of it. Moreover the i'm
provement of agriculture in which the
feeding of stock upon purchased foods
for the purposes of money profit and
an increased supply of manure, creates
constantly widening demand for
bran to mix with the oil-meals and
with corn, and the increase of dairy
ing still further enlarges the call for
it. Its feeding value consists of
its nitrogen and its fat. OF
the former we have already spoken;
of the latter y to 3 pounds
is contained in 100 pounds of it. Its
theoretical money value is estimated
at Sl.70 per 100 pounds as compared
with the best hay at 81 per 100 Rye
bran is thought to be a little richer in
nutritive elements than wheat bran,
and in our own considerably long ex-
perience we are strongly inclined to
believe this to be Well founded. having
found rye bran ground with corn and
oats to be more productive of milk and
butter than wheat bran. In our own
practice bran is largely used for horse
feed in the form of a frequent warm
mash made of four quarts of bran and
one quart of pure linseed meal scalded
and left to steep and cool until slightly
warm to the hand. 1t is exceedingly
useful. as it lOosens ald opens the
skin. encourages the shedding of the
old hair. and supplies the hair follicles
and the oil glands OF the skin with fat
ty matter tins piyinp the q rat a soft.