FARMEKS' INSTITUTES. 405 



rials, by rendering them softer and more easily masticated, or more palatable, 

 may make them more easily digestible, and may thus have an indirect value. 

 Yet, as a food, it is of no more value than the same amount of water in the 

 watering-trough. "We shall get a better estimate of the real value as food, of 

 any substance by leaving out the water in our statement of food-value. 



In reply to Mr. Woodman's question, I would say, that all the corn and the 

 mill stuffs seemed to be equally dry; any person examining tiiem would say 

 that they were all dry and in good condition. Many substances will hold a 

 considerabe amount of water while appearing to be dry; yet if heated for some 

 time to 313° F., they will give off water, as is shown by their losing weight 

 for a time. When an organic substance ceases to lose weight at the temperature 

 of 313'' F., it is regarded as really dry; and this loss of weight represents the 

 amount of water present. Substances differ in their power to hold water in 

 this concealed form; and thus corns apparently dry may vary in the amount 

 of water they hold. 



CELLULOSE. 



In each analysis there is an amount, varying in each instance, of cellulose 

 or woody fibre. In grain the cellulose is found chiefly in the tough envelope 

 of the seed, and when the grain is ground, the most of the cellulose reappears 

 in the bran and other coarse products separated by the bolt. It is claimed 

 that a certain amount of this woody fibre is digested under favorable condi- 

 tions, but the amount that is digested is a variable one, and under ordinary 

 conditions the most of the cellulose passes off in the excretions, especially if 

 the animal is fed with abundance of rich food as in fattening. In tlie feed- 

 ing of store animals it becomes an object to secure the digestion of cellulose, 

 — a matter to which I will call your attention further on — but this cellulose 

 may be obtained at so small a cost in the form of straw, that it is a material of 

 comparatively no value in the more costly forms (grain) of animal food. I 

 therefore omit cellulose in making up the actual food value of corn. 



ASH. 



In each analysis a certain small amount appears as "ash;" it varies in 

 amount, in corns, from 1.38 to l.GO per cent; in some of the millstuffs the 

 amount of ash is more than twice as much as the largest amount in the corn; 

 Some of this ash is unquestionably of value in animal nutrition, and vigorous 

 health could not be maintained if the ash elements were entirely withdrawn 

 from food. From this ash of food comes the mineral matter whicii makes the 

 bones of the animal, and in the growing animal the ash of the food is an 

 important matter. The same is true whenever bony matter must be rapidly 

 formed. A cow broke her leg, and during the time the bone was reuniting it 

 was found that her milk was almost entirely destitute of phosphate of lime. 

 The cow wisely concluded to place the phosphate where it "would do the 

 most good." 



All of these specimens of corn and millstuffs contain enough of this mineral 

 food, and some of them more tlian is required to sustain the vigorous health 

 of any animal. The amount taken up by an animal will vary according to 

 the amount of bony substance it is forming, but the amount taken up daily 

 by any animal, and especially when fattening, is very small. I throw out the 

 ash therefore in making up tny estimate of the actual food-value of these 

 various substances. 



