Settlers' Column.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 123, Issue 123, 17 April 1895, Page 4

Settlers' Column.

FEEDING MILKING COWS. An interesting investigation of the question whether wheat would not bo a more economical addition than bran to tho diet of cows in iniik, and give belter results, has lately been carried out by Dr Aliwork, one of tho members of the Riverton Agricultural Bureau, South Australia. As the re - suit of a special analy*'s he ascertains that in these two articles of food there is practieal'y the sa ice proportion of nitrogenous materials; but of the nonnitrogenous materials required to enrich creum there is 4988 per cent in wheat against 4'7 per cent of oil and a little sta-ch, whereas the husk of bran constituted moie than one-half its bulk, as compared with 12 - 3 i per cent in wheat. Taking the amount of starch in bran to be 5'3 per cent and adding this to the 4 7 per cent of oil, and comparing it with the 49 88 per <-ent of non-nitrogenous materials in wheat, this gives wheat as being no less than fivo times as good a butter producer as bran. ' Considering this in its relation to the present price of bran and wheat,' Dr Aliwork says, ' we find bran costs 7id for 201bs, or Is IOJd for GO lbs, and wheat Is 10J for 02lbs. This shows a small margin even at purchaser's prices in favor o? wheat, but when we take into consideration that the wheat for this purpose would require to go through the winnower but once, that there would be no loss en bag, no ' docking ' for small grains, no earning to market, what does tho difference represent then ? This is a question you can easily answer for yourselves.' As to the method of preparation the experience of the members who had tried wheat as a food for milch cows was that the plan of soaking is to be preferred to ' boiling the grain, aud that probably it would be advantageous to have it crushed also, to be fed with chaff.