32 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMEKT STATIONS 



be of use to teachers of home ecoiioiuicss in agricultural coLeges and 

 other educational institutions. 



At the University of Chicago Miss Edna Day has been studying 

 b}^ microscopical methods the comparative digestibility of raw and 

 cooked starch when supplied by a variety of food materials under 

 different conditions and related questions. As occasion has arisen 

 the Office of Experiment Stations has cooperated in the planning of 

 this work, the collection of data, and in other ways, and it is pro- 

 posed to publish the results of the investigation in the form of a 

 technical bulletin. 



A I the University of Maine and the Maine Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, Director Charles D. Woods and L, H. ^Merrill have made 

 digestion experiments, each of six days' duration, with different 

 sorts of corn bread and other corn dishes made fi'om different types 

 of corn meal. In connection Avith this work special attention has 

 been paid to the metabolic products of the feces and to the com- 

 parative economy of corn and wheat products as sources of nutrients 

 {'.nd energy in the diet. As a whole, the investigations have shown 

 that the corn bread and similar corn products have much the same 

 digestibility as similar foods prepared from graham flour — that is, 

 they are somewhat less thoroughly digested than standard patent 

 flour bread. As a whole, however, they are reasonably inexpensive 

 sources of nutritive material, Avholesome and valuable for the variety 

 they give to the diet. 



Professor Woods and Prof. Harry Snyder, of the ^linnesota Ex- 

 perijnent Station, on the basis of their investigations on the digesti- 

 bility and nutritive value of cereal breakfast foods, have prepared 

 a farmers' bulletin, published early in the year, which summarized 

 available information regarding the food value and place in the diet 

 of this class of food materials. 



The investigations on the nutritive value of flours and other cereal 

 foods, carried on at the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota 

 Agricultural PLxperiment Station under Prof. Harry Snyder's direc- 

 tion, are simihir in scope to those made at the University of Maine, 

 the investigations being so planned that the work at each institution 

 sui)plements that at tli(> otiier. and the two together cover the broad 

 field of the nutriti\e \alue ol' ceieal foods as a class. Professor 

 Snyder has made twenty-four digestion experiments of four days' 

 duration, each with uicn. using crackers, cookies, and other cakes, 

 and siuiihir foods, with a a icw to determining tiie digestibility 

 of flour in other forms than bread \\iu'n foiining an integral part 

 of a sini|)l(' nii\i'(l diet. The investigations haxc shown on an aver- 

 age that the \aiious Hour })roducts tested differ little as regards 

 thoi'oughness of digestion from biead baked from standard patent 

 flour. In other words, they are directly comparable as sources of 



