CHEMISTRY OF THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 1 89 



the duty on malt employed for feeding purposes would not be 

 likely to be of benefit to the farmei*, unless either a given amount 

 of malt sugar proved to be of considerably higher feeding value 

 than the starch from which it was produced, or the other con- 

 stituents were rendered more digestible and assimilable by the 

 process. 



This leads me, before leaving the subject of foods, to make a 

 few remarks on some other manufactured foods for stock. Many 

 complaints are made, and justly made, of the adulteration of oil- 

 cakes ; and it is sometimes asserted that cheaper and better foods 

 than the average of cakes now in use could be manufactured with 

 advantage both to the maker and to the feeder. Linseed and 

 other cakes are themselves, in one Sense, manufactured foods. 

 But the object of the manufacturer is not the production of cake, 

 but of oil. If the farmer did not use the cake at all, it would still 

 be made, and the oil would be sold for a higher price. As it is, 

 the manufacturer makes the cake as a bye-product, and the price he 

 gets for it enables him to sell his oil so much the cheaper. 



But if manufactories were set up for the special purpose of pre- 

 paring foods for stock, the whole cost of the undertakings must 

 be charged upon the food. Lentils, beans, peas, Indian meal, 

 barley meal, linseed, and other good staple foods must be used ; 

 and although it might be possible so to combine foods together 

 that a given weight of the mixture would possess a somewhat 

 higher feeding value than the component parts used singly, there 

 is every reason to' suppose that the increased cost would more 

 than counterbalance any slight benefit that could be derived in 

 that way. Nor do I anticipate that the progress of science will 

 aid us much in this direction. Condimental foods have been tried 

 and found wanting ; and I have little doubt that a similar result 

 will attend the manufacture and use of simpler food mixtures. 

 Our hopes as feeders must be in increased and cheap supplies of 

 ordinary cattle foods of a good quality, rather than in submitting 

 those we have to costly processes of manufacture. 



The results arrived at in regard to this portion of the subject 

 may be briefly summed up as follows : — 



1. The comparative feeding value of our current stock foods 

 depends more upon the proportion of the digestible non-nitro- 

 genous substances they contain than upon their richness in 

 nitrogenous compounds ; but the richer the food in nitrogen, the 

 more valuable will be the manure. 



