SPROUTED GRAIN FODDER.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 159, 27 February 1903, Page 4

SPROUTED GRAIN FODDER.

Sprouted maize has long been used by the Maoris as an article of diet. For using in small quantities any shallow wooden or galvanise*! iron trav should do, and it might be worth the while of farmers to try .experiments in this direction.

A new process has been introduced by Mr J. Kammer, of Chicago, by means of which the whole system of feeding live stock, particularly cattle for beef, is likely to be revolutionised, according to the claims of the inventor .*and those associated with him.

The invention of Kammer, which is now in the hands of the American Graingrowing Company, of Chicago, consists of a barge case made of galvanised iron and about 34ft -wide and sft high. This case contains a number of shallow drawers, in which the maize is placed in layers about 3in deep. All around the outside of the case, on the top and four sides, is a layer of common wood moss. This moss is about 3in thick, and is compressed by wire netting, so that it forms practically a sponge, capable of absorbing a amount of water. The maize is placed in the drawers, and water poured into the moss. Almost immediately a process of sprouting begins that in three or four days converts the hard grain into a mass of tender young shoots, fed by the softened pulp. It is then ready for feeding, and is taken out of the drawers, fresh maize being substituted and the process of sprouting repeated. By this invention the best kind of meat is produced, Mr Frank Froehling reports, who is a wholesale meat dealer and one of the directors of the company. It is firm, yet tender, and the fat is distributed throughout the lean, in mottled form, instead of being all together. In the ordinary feeding maize to stock not more than half of the grain is assimilated, whereas by the new method every bit of it is made tender and digestible. The cost of the invention is described as being so low that farmers, who will be th« piincipal users of it, can save the cost of the case in a single year, and it will last for fifteen or twenty years. Once a year the moss has to be replaced. The rest of tha material needed to sprout the maize is merely water. The grain in sprouting doubles its weight besides becoming soft and nourishing. Cattle eat it greedily, and fatten very quickly upon it/ For horses it is also excellent, and is found also of great value for swine and poultry, in fact for all farm animals that consume maize. The [ invention is stated to be as effective as it is simple.