The substances that have nitrogen in them are called protein. They
are very complex and difficult to analyze. In digestion these
proteins are all torn to pieces and built up into other kinds of
protein. Just as in tearing down an old house, only a portion of the
material can be used in a new house, so it is with protein and
laboratory analysis cannot tell us how much of the old house can be
utilized in building the new one.
In practice the whole subject simmers down to the proposition of
finding out by direct experiment whether the hen will do the work
best on this or that food, irregardless of its nitrogen content as
determined in the laboratory.
The results of many experiments and much experience has shown that
lean meat protein will make egg protein and chicken flesh protein
and that vegetable protein pound for pound is not its equal. I know
of no results that have proven that the high priced vegetable foods
such as linseed meal, gluten feed, etc., have proven a more valuable
chicken food than the cheapest grains.
With cows and pigeons this is not the case, but the hen is not a
vegetarian by nature and high priced vegetable protein doesn't seem
to be in her line. Of the three standard grains there is some
indication of the value of the proteids for chickens and of the
following ranks, 1st oats, 2d corn, 3d wheat.
The false conceptions of the value of wheat proteids has been
specially the cause of much waste of money. Digestive trials and
direct experiments both show that, as chicken foods, wheat is worth
less, pound for pound, than corn and yet, though much higher in
price, it is still used not only as a variety grain, but by many
poultrymen as the chief article of diet. Wheat contains only 3 per
cent. more proteid than corn. The man who substitutes wheat at one
and one-half cents a pound for corn worth one cent a pound pays 17
cents a pound for his added protein. In beef scrap he could get the
protein for 5 cents a pound and have a very superior article
besides.
Milk as a source of protein ranks between the vegetable proteids and
those of meat. It is preferably fed clabbered. The dried casein
recently put on the market is a valuable food but is not worth as
much as meat food and will not be extensively utilized until the
demand for meat scrap forces up the price to a point where the
casein can be sold more cheaply. Meat scrap, to be relished by the
chickens, must not be a fine meal, but should consist of particles
the size of wheat kernels or larger. The fine scrap gives the
manufacturer a chance to utilize dried blood and tankage which is
cheaper in quality and price than particles of real meat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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