FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 411 



tain some sng^ar, and the expression "tlie sweet grass and herbairc" is not a 

 mere liguro of spcccli. All animals will digest better the food which they 

 consume with enjoyment. A certain amount of sugar in food has a practical 

 yalue above starch as an appetizer', and any grain very deficient in sugar will 

 not have the same value for food which it would have if more grateful to the 

 palate. Compare tlie somewhat tasteless Tuscarora corn with the more tooth- 

 some Dent corn in this respect. 



ISo likewise the feeding-value of fat is not entirely measured by multiplying 

 the fat by 2| and calling the product the starch-equivalent of fat, because 

 a certain amount of fat is required to secure the complete digestion of starch. 

 For example, the potato contains an abundance of starch and a considerable 

 amount of albuminoids, but only one-fifth of one per cent of fat. When, 

 eating potatoes we instinctively demand some form of fat, and without butter 

 or gravy we consider the potato poor food. The reason is that. the large 

 amount of starch in the potato is not capable of complete digestion without 

 the addition of some fat, and our natural appetite knows this if we do not. 

 The same is found true in feeding potatoes to animals. Boussingault found 

 that when pigs were fed on potatoes alone, they soon ceased to grow, but when 

 greasy dish-water was added to the potato diet the pigs fattened rapidly. 



Some of you may say that the increase of fat in these pigs can be explained 

 by saying that the fat in the food was laid down as fat in the pigs, and that 

 the digestion or non-digestion of the starch had nothing to do in this matter. 

 This brings up the important subject of 



THE SOUKCES OF FAT IN" THE ANIMAL. 



A very earnest discussion of this subject took place between the French, 

 chemists on one side and the German chemists on the other side. The French 

 chemists claimed that the animal never formed fat, hut only appropriated and 

 laid dowji in his body the fat which he found ready formed in his food ; the 

 German chemists, while conceding that the animal would appropriate the fat 

 present in his food, yet affirmed that the animal may form a large 2iart of his 

 fat out of the starch, sugar and gum present in his food. You will at once see 

 that this question is of the highest importance in discussing the relative fatten- 

 ing qualities of different varieties of Indian corn, or other forms of animal 

 food. If the French school is right, it is only necessary to determine the 

 amount of fat present in any variety of corn, and this will settle the ques- 

 tion at once. If the German school is right, then the amount of carbohydrates 

 aside from fat, becomes a mattter of great importance in the final determina- 

 tion of the fattening value of any kind of animal food. This discussion was 

 carried on with earnestness for some time, and, curiously enough, the honey 

 bee was the first organism which afforded a decisive answer, for Huber showed 

 that the hee could form wax from honey. I need not go through the whole dis- 

 cussion on this subject, but will give the results by saying that careful experi- 

 ments in the hands of French, German and English chemists have proved that 

 animals may accumulate fat in their bodies in excess of all the fat contained in 

 their food. — in fact, that most of the fat is formed bi/ the animal out of the 

 starch and sugar in his food. On this point all chemists are now agreed. 

 The natural fat in the grain is of importance as one source of animal fat; it is 

 also important in promoting the digestion of starch, but it is not the only or 

 the chief source of fat in the animal body. 



The experiments of Dr. Miles in feeding pigs, made at the Agricultural College 

 in the years 18G8-1870, have already been published in the Reports of the State 



