BULLETIN 138 FEBRUARY, 1905 



Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm 



THE COMPOSITION OF ONTARIO FEEDING-STUFFS. 



By W. P. GAMBLE, B.S.A., Lecturer in Chemistry. 



The animal body is made up mainly of four classes of substances — 

 water, ash or mineral matter, nitrogenous matter, and fat. The pro- 

 portions in which these four classes of substances occur depend inainly 

 upon the age of the animal, its treatment, and the purpose for which it is 

 kept. The components of the body are continually breaking down and 

 being consumed. To keep the animal in a healthy condition there must 

 be a constant supply of new material. If this is lacking or insufficient, 

 hunger and finally death result. To keep up this supply is one of the 

 chief uses of food, but in addition to this, the food supplies the heat of 

 the body, and at the same time furnishes energy, which enables the ani- 

 mal to move the muscles and do work external and internal. Further- 

 more, foods also supply immature animal with material wherewith to 

 build up the tissues of the body. 



It will, therefore, be seen that to supply food in the right proportion 

 to meet the requirements of the animal, without a waste of food nutrients, 

 constitutes scientific feeding, and it is by carefully studying the composi- 

 tion of feeding stuffs and the requirements of animals that a great deal 

 of information may be obtained which will be of inestimable value to the 

 practical agriculturist. 



Realizing the importance of such a study, the author of this bulletin 

 wrote to all the proprietors of flour, oat, pea, and starch mills in the Pro- 

 vince, requesting them to send us samples of their by-products. Besides 

 the sample obtained in this way we collected a large number of similar 

 by-products from other sources. These feeding-stuffs were carefully 

 analysed, and the tabulated results will appear in their proper places. 



Before we examine the results of our analyses, however, let us under- 

 stand the meaning of the terms used by chemists to designate the various 

 components of a fodder. 



(i). Protein (nitrogenous material) is the name commonly given to 

 a class of substances which furnish the materials for the building up of 

 lean flesh, blood, skin, muscles, brain, nerve, hair, horn, wool, etc., and 

 for these purposes protein is absolutely essential in the food of animals. 

 The animal cannot grow, nor can it long exist without constantly renewed 

 supplies of protein in its food. Moreover, the animal is totally unable to 

 create protein. It is true that animals can produce blood protein, brain 

 protein, flesh protein, and milk protein, but only by appropriating and 

 transforming the protein of plants. Protein in some form is an essen- 

 tial constituent of all food. 



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