CORN. 



57 



by heat, by fermentation, or by a chemical agency of acids or 

 alkalies. 



4. That the dextrine which is the kernel, as it were, of each 

 globule, is alone soluble, and therefore alone nutritive. 



5. That the shells of the globules, when reduced to frag- 

 ments by mechanism or heat, are not nutritive. 



6. That though the fragments of the shells are not nutri- 

 tive they are indispensable to digestion, either from their dis- 

 tending the stomach, or from other causes not understood ; it 

 having been found by experiment that concentrated nourish- 

 ment, such as sugar or essence of beef cannot long sustain 

 life without some mixture of coarser or less nutritive food. 



7. Tiiat the economical preparation of all food, containing 

 globules or fecula, consists in perfectly breaking the shells and 

 rendering the dextrine contained in them soluble and diges- 

 tible, while the fragments of the shells are at the same time 

 rendered more bulky, so as the more readily to fill up the 

 stomach." 



These principles were very happily illustrated by a series 

 of experiments very carefully conducted by a farmer of Iowa, 

 in the fattening of twenty hogs, being first fed twenty-eight 

 days on dry shelled corn, in which they consumed 83 bushels 

 and gained 837 pounds, selling the corn at .50r1j per bushel ; 

 they were next fed fourteen days on dry meal, in which they 

 consumed 47 bushels, gaining 553 pounds, selling the corn at 

 .58i% per bushel ; tliey were next fed fourteen days on meal 

 mixed with cold water, consuming 55^ bushels, and gaining 

 731 pounds, selling the corn at .65i% per bushel ; they were 

 next fed fourteen days on cooked meal, consuming 46^ bush- 

 els, and gaining 696 pounds, selling the corn at*.74xV per 

 bushel. Taking the two extremes, after deducting the toll 

 for grinding, leaves .21 per bushel in favor of cooking ; and 

 if the food for the hogs liad been all cooked it would have 

 made 663 pounds more, which would have been worth $33.00 

 more. Or while it would require 345.51 bushels of dry corn 

 to make 3,480 pounds of pork, it would require only 232 

 when cooked ; a difference of 113.51 bushels in favor of 

 cooked food. This is only one of a thousand experiments 



