Vol. III. No. 49. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



71 



PRINCIPLES OF NUTRITION. 



The following brief'account of the general composi- 

 tion of foods and feeding stuffs is taken from a 

 recently issued Bulletin of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture (Office of Experiment Stations, 

 Bulletin No. 12.5) entitled: A iJigcst af Recent Experi- 

 inenf>< on Horse Feeding. The concise explanations 

 of the principal terms used in connexion with the 

 compo.sition of foods is likely to be useful : — 



The .study of foods and feeding stuffs has sliown that, 

 altboiigh tliey differ so much in texture and appearance, they 

 are in reality made \x\i of a small number of cliemical 

 constituents, namely, protein, fat, carbohydrates and ash, 

 together with a larger or smaller amount of water. Tlie 

 latter can often be seen as in the juice of fresli jilants. In 

 drj' hay no water or juice is visible. A small amount is, 

 however, contained in minute particles in the plant tissues. 

 Protein is a name given to the total group of nitrogen- 

 ous materials present. The group is made up mainly of the 

 true proteids and albumens, .such as the gluten of wheat, and 

 of nitrogenous materials such as amides, which are believed to 

 have a lower feeding value than the albumens. 



The group ' fat ' includes the true vegetable fats and 

 oils, like the oil in cotton seed or corn, as well as vegetable 

 wax, some chlorophyll (the green colouring matter in leaves, 

 etc.) and other colouring matters ; in brief, all the materials 

 which are extracted Ijy ether in the usual laboratory method 

 of estimating fat. The name ' ether extract' is often and 

 very projierly api)lied to this grouii. Chemically considered, 

 the true fats are glycerides of the fatty acids, chiefly oleic, 

 stearic and palmitic. 



The group ' carbohydrates' includes starches, sugars, 

 crude fibre, cellulose, pentosans, and other bodies of a similar 

 chemical structure. This group is usually sub-divided, accord- 

 ing to the analytical methods followed in estimating it, into 

 'nitrogen-free extract' and 'crude fibre'; the former sub- 

 division including principally sugar, starches and most of the 

 pentosans, and the latter, cellulose, lignin, and other woody 

 substances which very largely make up the rigid structure of 

 plants. The jiroteids contain nitrogen in addition to carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and a little phosiihorus and sulphur. The 

 fat consists of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, as do also 

 carbohydrates. In the carbohydrates, however, the oxj-gen 

 and hydrogen, are always piesent in the proportion in which 

 they occur in water, namel}-, two atoms of hydrogen to one 

 of oxygen. 



The grouj) ' mineral matter ' includes the inorganic 

 bodies i)resent in the form of salts in the juices and tissues 

 of the different feeding stuffs, the principal chemical elements 

 found being sodium, potassium, calcium, chlorine, fluorine, 

 phosphorus and sulphur. The term ' ash' is often and very 

 projierly used for this group, since the mineral matter 

 represents the incombustible portion which remains when any 

 given feeding stuff is burned. 



The relation between the quantities of nitrogenous and 

 nitrogen-free nutrients in the ration is called the nutritive or 

 nutrient ratio. In calculating this ratio 1 lb. of fat is taken 

 as equivalent to 2 •2-5 R. of carbohydrates — this being 

 approximately the ratio of their fuel values — so that the 

 nutritive ratio is actually that of the protein to the carbo- 

 hydrates plus 2-2.5 times the fat. 



SUGAR-CANE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 

 IN JAVA. 



The following interesting account of the sugar- 

 cane experiment stations in Java, and the lines upon 

 which investigations are being carried on, by Dr. J. 

 D. Kobus, is translated from the Revue Agricole of 

 Reunion for October 190.3: — 



The West .Java station was started at Kagok in 1886. 

 For three years it was located in the town of Pekalongan. 

 The East .Java station dates from 1887. It has been located 

 from the beginning in the town of Pasoeroean. 



Formerly there was a third station — Central Java — 

 founded in 1885. The able director, M. F. Soltwedel, died 

 in December 1889 after having discovered the possibility 

 of raising sugar-canes from seed. With him also originated 

 the idea of growing sugar-canes in mountain lands at an 

 elevation of 2,000 feet so as to avoid the ravages of the sereh 

 disease. After two or three years the station was closed. 



At West Java the first director was W. Knieger, the 

 well-known author of the German treatise on Su;/ar-cane 

 and its Culture, in which he has recorded his personal 

 experience in Java (from 1886 to 1891), as well as that of 

 the other .stations in the island up to 1896. In 1891, he 

 was succeeded by Dr. F. A. F. C. Went, who has gained 

 great distinction liy his researches on the diseases of the 

 sugar-cane. He was assisted by H. C. Prinsen GeerUgs 

 who succeeded him in 1896. The researches of Prinsen 

 Geerligs on sugar manufacture are widely known, also his 

 little work which has already passed through three editions 

 in Dutch and in English. 



The first director of the East Java station was Dr. J. G. 

 Kramers. I assisted him as sub-director. In the first 

 few years we were engaged in soil research experiments with 

 various manures, etc. In 1890, the director was succeeded 

 by Dr. J. H. Wakker, a botanist of distinction. He set 

 himself to concentrate our efforts on researches as to the 

 cause of the disease known as ' sereh,' which threatened 

 entirely to exterminate the sugar-cane in Java. Dr. Wakker 

 made interesting and thorough research in regard to other 

 diseases of the sugar-cane, but, like Dr. Went, he did not 

 .succeed in discovering the cause of 'sereh'. 



After ten year's of active work. Dr. Wakker resigned 

 his post for personal reasons. I .succeeded him in 1898. 

 Since 1893, I had been editing the Archief voor de Java- 

 Suikerimlustrie, a work -which I had to relinquish on assuming 

 the directorship of the station. As you know the chemical 

 selection of the sugar-cane and the raising of seedlings have 

 since occupied the better part of my time. I still, however, 

 continue my researches on the soil and my experiments with 

 manures. . . . 



All the publications of our stations are sent to the 

 contributing members of each station. All without 

 distinction can ask for information from each other and all 

 have equal rights to the varieties of sugar-cane and seeds, 

 provided that applications are received before July 1. We 

 raise the canes ordered on their account and in January the 

 seedlings are sent to them and the cost received. Last 

 .January more than 17 acres of cane were grown by us for 

 raising seedlings. As soou as the young canes are six 

 months old, each internode can be used as a plant. In 

 January 1904, our nurseries will be on a still larger scale. 

 Our experiment fields at the same station have an area of 

 86 acres, containing more than 200 varieties of seedling 

 canes. The best only are distributed to the Usines ; before 

 this it is necessary that they should have been carefully 

 proved for four consecutive years. 



