8 4 



MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. ig02. 



PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OF BARLEY, CORN, OATS, RICE 



AND WHEAT. 



Barley meal * 



Bailey, pearl * 



Cornt 



Oats, rolled, 20 analyses J. 

 Bice, hulled, unpolished §. 

 Rice, hulled, polished §.... 

 Wheat t 



Prct. 

 .63 



1.23 



1.50 



2.10 



1.00 



.50 



1.75 



* Knight. Food and Its Functions, p. 161. 



t Wiley. Foods and Food Adulterants, Bui. 13, part 7, Div. Cheni., U. S. Dept 

 Agr., p. 1190. 

 JU. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Expt. Stations, Bui. 28 (Revised), p. 57. 

 § Wiley. Foods and Food Adulterants, Bui. 13, part. 9, Div. Chem., pp. 11S2-3. 



Barley is not very extensively eaten in this country, where its 

 principal use has been in broths and soups. In the so-called 

 barley bread, a considerable proportion of wheat flour is mixed 

 with the barley meal. According to Knight, such bread is 

 usually heavy, rather indigestible, and somewhat laxative. The 

 latter property is shared by many of the coarser cereal prepara- 

 tions and can probably be attributed to the mechanical condition, 

 rather than to the chemical composition of the food. As barley 

 is very generally employed in the manufacture of malt, its pres- 

 ence in the malted foods is to be expected. 



Com from its composition and cheapness deserves a more 

 extended use. Although below wheat and hulled oats in the 

 amount of protein which it contains, it is very rich in fat, ranking 

 next to hulled oats in this respect. As corn meal, the form in 

 which it is generally put upon our markets, it is regarded as less 

 digestible than the other cereal products. This is probably in 

 large part due to its coarse milling and the large amount of bran 

 which it contains. The fat, which is largely confined to the 

 germ, is a source of weakness, since it readily becomes rancid 

 and the meal becomes musty. Hominy and samp, from which 

 the germ has been removed, are free from this objection. An 



