Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-10-17
agricultural lore
Value of Fruit for Animals.


especially apples, are raised it is a
common custom to feed windfalls
Apple cores, parings, and similar
| household waste often form a part OF
kitchen slop or swill, which is fed to
livestock or poultry. In such cases
the fruit is not regarded as a very i'm
portant part of the ration, although it
is apparently eaten win relish. At the
New Hampshire station common cider
or windfall apples, valued at 10 cents
bushel, were fed as part of the ra-
ton to pigs, but were not regarded as
| economical feeding stuff. Apple
| pomace, which remains when cider is
| expressed, has been used as a feeding
stuff both fresh and ensiled, and in
Europe the same is true of the pomace
obtained in wine-making and In the
oil industry. The California station
has studied the composition of Amer
lean olive pomace as we'll as fresh and
dried fruits with reference to their
use as feeding stuffs. In regions like
California, where fruit growing is such
a large industry, the printable utfliza-
ton as stock-feed of windfal1s, which
are generally immature and Unsal-
able, or ripe fruit, fresh or dried,
which canot be proftably sold owing
to market conditions or an inferior
quality, is a matter of considerable
| Importance.
1t is well-known that farm animals,
generally speaking, will eat fresh
fruits readily, and tests made by Cal
ifornia feeders have shown that the
taste for dried fruits is readily ac-
qrired, stock possibly relishing such
materials on account of their sweet
taste. The fresh fruits contain a
large amount of water and low per-
centage of nutritive material, consist
ing chiefly Of carbohydrates, (sugars,
starches, etc.. Dried fruits are much
richer in proportion to their bulk,
having been concentrated by evapora-
ton. For instance, fresh apples con-
tain some IS per cent. water and IA
per cent. nutrients, while dried prunes
contain about Is per cent. water and
70 per cent nutrients, chiefly sugar.
| The fresh fruits are very succulent
feeds. Since the nutritive material
in both fresh and dried fruits con-
sists largely of carbohydrates, they
cannot form al well-balanced ration.
but should be combined with the con-
centrated feeds containing protein.
The authors of recent agricultural
bulletin compared the value of fresh
and dried fruits with more common
feeding stuffs, rating protein at II, fat
at 3.31, and carbohydrates at OTIS a
pound.
Melons are the least valuable of the
fresh fruits mentioned. For example,
100 pounds of nutmeg melons is equiv
alent to only 10 pounds of wheat
straw, or five pounds of cotton-seed
meal. Apples and oranges are practi-
cally equal in food value Goo pounds
being equivalent to 33 to "a pounds Of
wheat straw, rating nearly so per
cent. higher than the melons. Prunes
represent a. fair average of pitted fresh
fruits. The nutritive material found
in grapes and fresh figs is practically
the same, both ranking with pitted
fruits in feeding value. The dried
fruits contain much more nUtritive
material in proportion to their budk
than fresh fruits. On the basis of the
method of comparison followed, raj
sins have the highest feeding value
while dried apricots rank only a little
lower.
A SOW weighing 260 pounds, from
which litter of pigs had just been
taken, was fed at the California sta
ton during a preliminary feeding
period on barley and dried figs, and
then for nine days on all the dried figs
she would consume, which amounted
on an average of 24.4 pounds a day.
The average daily gain was 1-3
pounds, the figs consumed for pound
of gain being therefore, 7.3 pounds.
It is pointed out that the conditions
were usually favorable for gains in
weight, rating pork at AZ cents a
pound, live weight, the figs eaten
we're worth $1.35, or at the rate of
$3.50 a ton 1t is estimated that 200
pounds of grain would be required to
produce the same gains in weight as
were made on figs.
1t may be a difficult question, at
times when prices are extremely low,
to decide which would be the better
economy, to feed the fruit to cattle or
| to receive whatever small returns
might be offered for it in the market.
When, however, there is no market
for the fruit, there may be nothing
left to be done but to feed it to stock,
and the above results indicate that it
may be proftably disposed of in this
way. The authors believe that the
best way Of feeding fruit would be to
use such materials to supply the car
bohy drate portion (sugars, starches,
etc. of the ration to make up the de-
| iciency Of heterogeneous material,