Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-10-16
GRINDING FEED.
A Discussion OF the Questi0a, oU0e

A Discussion OF the Questioa, 0Does
II Pay?"
While there are circumstances under
which grinding grain would be un-
profitable. says tho Farm and Home, as
for example when corn is cheap, as il
was last season, especially in the trans
Mississippi States, and mills few, and
the charge for grinding high, the cost
for grinding would represent nearly or
quito half the cash value of the corn
But when the price of corn is above
fifty cents per bushe1, instead of fifteen
or twenty, and grinding can be done
CONVENE ntly and cheaply. it will I'M
doubleday pay.
With cheap corn and hogs to follow
the cattle, there is very little loss.
even though much of the com passes
through the animal undigested. The
advantage of grinding tho food is that
it is more perfectly digested, and If, in
addition to grinding, the hay or straw
is chaffed, and the ground feed mixed
with 1t. the result is to render the
rough feed more palatable, and, the
ground feed being mixed with it, is
raised and remasticated and all the
food improved by the process.
A very interesting and convincing ex-
pertinent was made some years ago by
the London Omnibus Company. They
were feeding about three thousand
horses on whole oats and long hay, and
had figured out to the fraction of a cent
what it cost to feed them, and when
they began feeding cut hay and ground
oats mixed and fed as chop, they found
saving of ten cents per horse. or three
hundred dollars per day. One thing
f,,r 4 S,,1l 1o<1 II ~
is that ccrn ground, cob and all, makes
better feed for cattle than when the
grain alone is ground. This has been
the subject of careful experiment. at
more than one of the experiment sta
lions. where every thing was done with
the utmost care, the food being weighed
out daily and the stock weighed at
stated periods, and the conclusion
corn was worth as much as a pound Of
corn alone.
The value Of the cob seems to come
from the balancing of the ration rather
than from the value of the food con-
stituents in it, as chemical analysis of
the cob shows it to be little moro val
liable than the corn fodder. The cost
of grinding has been greatly reduced
which are geared to high rate of speed,
five hundred revolutions minute. and
run by the thresher engines. which
would otherwise be idle good part of
the winter. Mills costing from sixty
dollars to one hundred dollars will grind
from twenty to fifty bushels an hour,
and at cost of from four to six cents a
bushel of seventy pounds.
For the feeding of colts and calves,
and in fact all growing animals, bran
is one of the best ground foods, and
usually the most economical. A pound
of bran is worth more for young ami
mails than a pound OF corn, or fine
middling, as it contains the material
required for the making of bone and
muscle, which is just what the growing
animal needs. This being true. and it
is as we'll established as any fact can
be. it will often pay the farmer to buy
bran rather than corn, when he can get
fifty pounds or more for the price of
bushel of corn. To sum up them, we
would say:
First-Grinding feed is usually profit
able when the price OF grain is high.
Secoud-To get the best results corn
should be ground with the cob and
ground fine.
Third - Feeding the grain with
chaffed hay, straw, or corn-fodder, adds
still more to it's value.
Fourth-When food must be pur-
chased, the wise farmer will often buy
bran and oil-meal which are already
ground, rather than corn.