All the parts of dry-farm crops are highly nutritious.  This needs to be more clearly understood by the dry-farmers.  Dry-farm hay, for instance, because of its high protein content, may be fed with crops not so rich in this element, thereby making a larger profit for the farmer.  Dry-farm straw often has the feeding value of good hay, as has been demonstrated by analyses and by feeding tests conducted in times of hay scarcity.  Especially is the header straw of high feeding value, for it represents the upper and more nutritious ends of the stalks.  Dry-farm straw, therefore, should be carefully kept and fed to animals instead of being scattered over the ground or even burned as is too often the case.  Only few feeding experiments having in view the relative feeding value of dry-farm crops have as yet been made, but the few on record agree in showing the superior value of dry-farm crops, whether fed singly or in combination.

The differences in the chemical composition of plants and plant products induced by differences in the water-supply and climatic environment appear in the manufactured products, such as flour, bran, and shorts.  Flour made from Fife wheat grown on the dry-farms of Utah contained practically 16 per cent of protein, while flour made from Fife wheat grown in Lorraine and the Middle West is reported by the Maine Station as containing from 13.03 to 13.75 per cent of protein.  Flour made from Blue Stem wheat grown on the Utah dry-farms contained 15.52 per cent of protein; from the same variety grown in Maine and in the Middle West 11.69 and 11.51 per cent of protein respectively.  The moist and dry gluten, the gliadin and the glutenin, all of which make possible the best and most nourishing kinds of bread, are present in largest quantity and best proportion in flours made from wheats grown under typical dry-farm conditions.  The by-products of the milling process, likewise, are rich in nutritive elements.

Future Needs

It has already been pointed out that there is a growing tendency to purchase food materials on the basis of composition.  New discoveries in the domains of plant composition and animal nutrition and the improved methods of rapid and accurate valuation will accelerate this tendency.  Even now, manufacturers of food products print on cartons and in advertising matter quality reasons for the superior food values of certain articles.  At least one firm produces two parallel sets of its manufactured foods, one for the man who does hard physical labor, and the other for the brain worker.  Quality, as related to the needs of the body, whether of beast or man, is rapidly becoming the first question in judging any food material.  The present era of high prices makes this matter even more important.