72 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The amount of albumen contained was found to be .90 

 per cent, or double the amount in apples ; of caserne there 

 is a trace less than .02 per cent. The amount of water is 

 less ; and of starch, of which there is none in apples, we find 

 more than thirteen per cent. Assuming a bushel of potatoes 

 to weigh lifty pounds, Ave have rather more than half a 

 pound of albumen, a few grains of fat and caseine, and about 

 seven pounds of starch. These principles comprise about all 

 that has food-value in potatoes. Contrasting the two sources 

 of food, apples and potatoes, it will be seen that the latter 

 have at least ten times the value of the former, unless an 

 exaggerated estimate is placed upon the value of glucose 

 contained in apples. 



Pumpkins and parsnips contain, of albuminoids (the flesh- 

 forming constituents of food), 1.06 per cent more than pota- 

 toes ; carbohydrates (fat-forming material), eight per cent 

 (parsnips containing much the more) ; and therefore have 

 a much higher food-value than apples. Turnips occup}' a low 

 place in the scale of values in proportion to bulk. 



A correspondent of an agricultural paper having stated, 

 that, in feeding apples to his cows (the kind not stated), a 

 bushel of ripe fruit gave him '• a pound of finely flavored 

 butter," let us briefly examine the statement. In order to 

 do this understandingly, we must consider the elements of 

 food which afford money-value, outside of the maintenance 

 of the animal in health, and independent of any production 

 of flesh. If we take a cow in milk, and feed her during 

 twenty-four hours with a known quality of food (maintain- 

 ing her of the same weight at the close of the experiment 

 as at the commencement), we obtain valuable knowledge. 

 We will give her of — 



POUNDS. 



Water 120 



Potatoes 30 



Grass 15 



165 



