412 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Board of Agriculture. From these reports we learn that from 3.8 to 4.8 i-)ound» 

 of meal were used in giving one pound increase in live weight. But the meal 

 was taken in its ordinary condition, when it contains a quantity of water ; the 

 increase of live weight also contains water, and the relative amount of water 

 in the increase of live weight and the absolute amount of fat obtained by a- 

 given weight of meal was not determined. While these experiments are valu- 

 able, tliey were not planned to draw out the information we must have to settle 

 the question, will starch develop fat in a pig, and, if so, how much will it 

 make? W'e turn for this information to the very satisfactory experiments of 

 Lawes & Gilbert, of England. In these experiments the amount of fat in the 

 food was carefully determined, the food was estimated as free from all water, 

 and the increase in the animal was also estimated in the dry state. In this way 

 the amount of dry solid increase could be compared with the dry solid mat- 

 ter in 100 pounds of food. In feeding different kinds of animals they found 

 that the increase in fat in the animals was 4 to 5 times as great as the total 

 amount of fat contained in their food. In the case of the pig they found that 

 100 pounds of dry food gave 17.4 pounds of dry increase in the animal, the 

 other 82.6 pounds appearing to have been cast out of the body in the excretions. 

 Of the 17.4 pounds of increase 16.04 pounds were estimated as fat, 1^ pounds 

 as nitrogenous substances, and an insignificant amount as mineral matter. The 

 ready-formed fat in the dry food was 3.96 pounds. There must have been the 

 formation of fat in the body, in excess of that contained in the food, to the 

 extent of 12.08 pounds for every 100 pounds of dry food consumed. If we esti- 

 mate this fat as formed from starch, and that 2| parts of starch only equal 

 one part of fat, then 30.2 pounds of dry starch were used to form 12.08 pounds 

 of new fat. The ready-formed fat (3.96 pounds) and the starch, supposed to 

 be converted into new fat to make up the 16.04 pounds of fat in the increase 

 (30.2 pounds) would amount to 34.16 pounds out of every 100 pounds of dry 

 food consumed; add now the 1.36 pounds of nitrogenous and mineral matters 

 stored up in the body, and we find that 35.52 pounds of the dry food is really 

 stored up in the body, and only 64.48 pounds in every 100 pounds of food are 

 rejected in the excretions. The practical result of feeding animals is to con- 

 dense the Jood i\nd store it up in a more highly elaborated form. 



"WHITE CORN, OR YELLOW CORN? 



Let us now come directly to the question which was raised in the Paw Paw 

 Institute last winter, which is the best to fatten swine, yellow corn or white? 



If we will throw out No. 5, Strawberry Boan, as belonging to neither class, 

 we have 7 yellow corns, and 5 white : the average percentage of fat in the yel- 

 low corns is 4.92, in the white 5.02. If we reckon the total carbohydrates by 

 replacing the fat in each analysis by 2.V times as much starch, we find the aver- 

 age carbohydrates for yellow corn is 74.44, and for white 75.31. Tiie quantity 

 of albuminoids and of mineral matter in all these specimens of corn being 

 ample for all reciuiremcnts of fattening swine, and the percentage of fat and 

 of carbohydrates being nearly the same in them all, it would seem that their 

 value for fattening purposes is nearly the same; if there is any difference it is 

 in favor of the white corns. I certainly have found nothing in the chemical 

 composition of these corns which would sustain the position that the yellow 

 corn will fatten swine rapidly, while the white corn will fail to fatten them. If 

 there is this difference, it springs from something outside of their chemical 

 composition. 



