The first thing on the programme this afternoon is an address by Prof. Hills, whom I now have the pleasure of introducing to you.

Mr. Hills, who was received with applause, then delivered the following address:

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR J. L. HILLS.

Concentrated Meals.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

If we look over the list of analyses published by the Department of Agriculture at Washington, comprising nearly 200 different kinds of cattle foods, we find but few which really might be termed concentrated foods. This table comprises about 3,000 analyses of some 200 foods. There is not a single roughage among these foods which contains more than 15 per cent of protein with the exception of the leguminous foods, such as clovers, which contain from 15 to 18 per cent of protein. The by-products, however, contain this amount or more of this valuable protein. There are five of these milling products which contain over 30 per cent of protein,-cottonseed meal, the two linseed meals, the old process and the new process, the various gluten meals and buckwheat middlings. Why is it that we consider this protein so desirable, and the fodder which has large percentages of protein in it the best to use? I do not need to tell this audience that protein is the nitrogen-containing material, that it is the fleshforming material, that of all the constituents of food it is the one which is most important in the manufacture of milk. Foods contain, as you are aware, several different constituents; carbo-hydrates, which, with the fat, produce the heat of the body, protein, which builds up the flesh of the body, and the ashy material, which builds up the bony structure.

Let us compare a food to an ore: If one is mining an ore containing gold and copper, for instance, and the ore contains much more gold than copper, it is of course exceedingly valuable; if, however, it contains much more copper than it does gold it may still be very valuable, although not so much so as the highly auriferous ore. A food containing a large percentage of protein with a comparatively small amount of starch, is more valuable than the food which contains a large amount of starch and a small amount of protein. Gold has its use and so has copper; so protein and starch have their uses in the animal economy; but the protein is the central and most costly food ingredient around which the others should group.

Buckwheat middlings is one of the five concentrated meals mentioned. So far as I am aware, it is not sold to any great extent, so that we may for the present confine our consideration to the three

kinds, cottonseed meal, the two varieties of linseed meal, and the various kinds of gluten meal.

The cottonseed is a covering of the seed yellowish substance.

First let us consider what these things are. by-product of the cotton industry. The outer is a thick, dark brown husk, containing inside In the process of manufacture of the cottonseed oil, which is the main product of these mills, about one-eighth is taken out as oil, three-eighths is cottonseed meal and one-half, cottonseed hulls.

Linseed meal is the by-product of the linseed oil industry, and is simply the residue after the oil has been expressed. The difference between the old process and the new process meals is simply that the former uses hydraulic pressure, while the latter uses both hydraulic pressure and naphtha. Naphtha is an excellent solvent for oils, and it will take from the linseed cake, or the linseed itself, a larger amount of oil than will the old process.

The method of manufacturing gluten meals is not so well understood by dairymen as that of the cottonseed and linseed meals. At most farmers' institutes the gluten question comes up for answer. Gluten meal is a by-product of corn; it is the by-product of the glucose manufacture. The process of the various makers (there are now three different concerns making this meal) is as follows: The corn is taken into the factory and is then subjected to the action of water and a rolling process between stones, that softens the kernels and loosens the husk and the germ. When this husk and germ is loosened it is sold by some manufacturers in that state as corn germ meal, so-called, making a valuable product; the rest of the material is then dried, and after grinding, sifted through a fine bolting cloth. The material thus sifted comprises the starch and the protein of the original corn; as it sifts it drops into water; the starch is the heavier of the two and largely sinks to the bottom, while the gluten is lighter and floats on the top of the water and thus may be mechanically removed from the starch; it is then dried and ready for use. Some of the makers put it on the market in this shape without mixture; some mix it with the germs and husks and sell it as gluten feed. This accounts in some measure for the wide difference in composition between these various gluten foods.

The question is sometimes asked whether there is not some poisonous substance used by the glucose manufacturers which may get into these gluten meals and so poison the cows. The only poison, so far as I know, that is used is strong sulphuric acid; this changes the starch extracted from the corn into glucose. But the sulphuric acid does not touch the starch until the gluten is taken from it, so that it becomes impossible for any of it to get into the cattle foods. need not fear poisonous chemicals in this material.

We

That, in brief, is the method of manufacture of these four concentrated meals. What is their composition? This may be deter

mined by chemical analysis. That only tells us what is there, but it does not tell us whether all the material there is available or not. In every food, human or cattle, there is some material not readily soluble, which passes through the animal undigested, but these meals. are of about equal digestibility, so that relatively the analyses will indicate something.

Permit me to call your attention to this chart by which you may see the percentage of ingredients in the several foods:

This chart shows the results of hundreds of analyses. I have included corn meal and wheat bran, which are not concentrated meals, but are inserted for comparison. They all contain about one-tenth part of water. The ash in the corn and glutens is very low, but in the other meals it comprises about one-sixteenth the entire weight. The protein is highest in the cottonseed, lower in the linseeds, while the two gluten meals are between the cottonseed and linseed in protein percentage. The gluten feed, however, has but half the amount of protein that the cottonseed contains. All, however, contain far more protein than either corn meal or bran.

Some gluten manufacturers separate out the husks and germ and some leave them in with the meal. The Chicago and Cream gluten meals are clear, without husks; the Buffalo has the husks mixed in and since they contain comparatively little protein, the mixture is relatively lower in this ingredient.

Passing over the crude fibre, which is largely indigestible, let us consider the next column. Nitrogen free extract includes starch and sugar, and every cattle food contains more or less of it. But being less costly than the protein, the corn, a pre-eminently starchy food, should sell for very much less than those containing less of this desirable but cheap ingredient. The fat is the most valuable of the heat-forming materials in fodder. Note the high percentage in these concentrated meals compared with corn meal and bran.

Note also the low percentage of fat in the new process linseed

meal which has been extracted with naphtha as compared with that which has been made by the old process.

I will call your attention to one phase in the use of concentrated meals which dairymen should consider, viz., their fertilizing value. I firmly believe that there are few Vermont farmers who can afford to buy largely of commercial fertilizers except to use as a starter for their crops; it is more economical and better every way to make nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, which are the three things the soil cries for, serve the double purpose of first feeding the animal, and then the land, and through that the plants. Cottonseed meal is used in the South as a fertilizer direct, but it is far better to pass it through the cow.

The next to the last column in the table shows the value of the ingredients of fertility, based on the prices which you are paying for commercial fertilizers. There is in the cottonseed meal $27 worth of fertility; it is there; whether you get it out or not is another thing; it compares favorably with the average retail selling price, which is about $26 in the Vermont market. Therein lies the great advantage of cottonseed meal, that for the one price you can get two services, as food and as fertilizer.

What is the effect of the feeding of these meals upon the quality and the quantity of the milk flow? What is their effect on the production of the butter and also what is their effect upon the health of the animal? A good many experiment stations and colleges have tested this matter. Many dairymen think the scientists are wrong, that richness may be fed into milk. It is one of the common questions at farmers' institutes, "Can the quality of milk be bettered by feeding?" I think the controversy which has arisen is due to a misunderstanding on the part of the farmer as to the true position of the agricultural scientists. When the question is asked me I say "yes" and "no;" it can be fed in, and it cannot be fed in. If a cow is receiving all she wants and can eat of a good nutritious ration, rightly balanced, with the right proportion of the flesh and heat producers and is changed from that to another ration of all she wants and can eat of a well-balanced nutritious ration, she will not, as a rule, materially alter the quality of her milk; she may change the quantity, but will not materially the quality. If, however, she is changed from a ration poorly balanced or where she does not get as much as she wants or can eat, to a well-balanced ration of all she can eat, then she may change the quality as well as the quantity of her milk. Change from good to good there is no alteration in the quality of her milk. Change from poor to good and she may better its quality. There are two or three exceptions to this rule. It appears that palm nut meal (not fed in this country) will disproportionately increase the fat percentage of milk; it looks at present as if these gluten meals would do it, but it is yet a moot point. Iowa station has published results indicating that they do increase

The

the fat in the milk, and the work at our own station on the hill last year points in the same direction.

The use of cottonseed meal is almost always followed by an increased quantity of milk; these other foods quite often increase the quantity of the milk. Several stations that have tested these . materials as against corn meal or wheat bran or a mixture of the two have found a profitable increase in the amount of products received varying from a small amount to as high as a fourth increase. The Pennsylvania station fed six pounds of cottonseed meal to each cow per day to advantage and profit, and without injuring the health of the animals.

The testimony regarding the effect of the linseed meals upon the quantity and quality of milk is not so full as that on the other concentrated meals. The old and new process of linseed meals have been compared at the Massachusetts station and it was found that there was little difference between them; as I recollect, the new process ration cost a trifle less than the old, so that it just about evened the matter up. The Wisconsin station found comparatively little gain by feeding linseed products as compared with wheat bran, and it seemed to them from their experiments that it tended more to the making of flesh than to the manufacture of milk. As I recollect it, their conclusion was that the wheat bran did as well or better in the manufacture of milk than the richer linseed meal; that the linseed put on the beef, and bran made milk.

The gluten meals were put on the markets but a few years ago, and have been but slightly tested. The Iowa station published interesting results, and in 1891 the Vermont station took it up, and we have made a number of experiments of these various gluten meals. We have usually in testing these foods used a ration of corn meal and bran in equal parts as the standard with which to compare the various meals, but sometimes used corn alone. The Cream gluten and Buffalo meals, nine times in eleven experiments increased the flow of milk; we get more milk from the use of them in small quantities than from the use of equal quantities of the bran and corn meal, the gain being about nine per cent, that is, nine pounds gained in 100 pounds of milk; the quality of the milk appears to be better nine times in eleven, the average increase being about 0.20 per cent. fat, by no means as strong a difference in the favor of gluten meals as the work of the Iowa station showed. As a consequence of this increased quantity and bettered quality the butter product was increased ten times in eleven experiments. Four pounds daily of these by-products were fed in later experiments against corn meal alone. The milk flow was bettered 17 times out of 19, and the quality, 10 times out of 19; so that as compared with corn, or a mixture of corn and bran, these glutens are a valuable material considered solely in regard to its effects upon the quality and quantity of the milk.