THE FARMER'S MAGAZINES 



337 



albumeu, &c. ; and certain mineral matters. It was fuitlier 

 found that the ordinar}-, or staple foods, when in proper ad- 

 -niixture with one another, supplied the several constituents 

 far more economically than when mixtures were attempted 

 to be made, in which some of the constituents (starch, 

 sugar, or oil for instance) were employed in a comparatively 

 pure state ; that is, after having undergone an expensive 

 process of manufacture in their preparation. Indeed, un- 

 less fresh and cheaper sources of food can be discovered, so 

 that we can bo supplied with starch, sugar, oil, &c., at a 

 cheaper rate than they are provided in hay, corn, oilcake, 

 and the like, we canuot hope economically to replace the 

 latter by special manufactured foods for stock. 



It may be asked— if we can with advantage employ con- 

 centrated manufactured manures for our crops, why cannot 

 we also economically employ concentrated manufactured foods 

 for our stock ? Theanswer is plain. In using the concentrated 

 manufactured manure, containing a certain amount of nitro- 

 gen or phosphates, for example, the bulk of the crop is ob- 

 tained from other sources — such as the atmosphere and water, 

 not supplied by the farmer's hand ; the natural constituents 

 existing in his soil ; and the residue from previous manures 

 and crops. The application of a small quantity of ammonia 

 and mineral matter will often yield as great an increase ot 

 vegetable produce, as if 20 or 30 times the weight of farm- 

 yard dung had been employed. This is not to be wondered 

 at, when it is considered that by far the greater bulk of the 

 dung consists of water and other constituents which the 

 plant can obtain either from the air or the soil. We thus 

 get, by the use of concentrated manures, a much greater 

 weight of increased produce than there was of manure em- 

 ployed. The case is very different in the supply of food to 

 our stock. The quantity of the constituents returned in 

 the solid and liquid excrements, and in the increase of the 

 animal, must invariably be very much less than was con- 

 tained in the food consumed. No concentration of coasti- 

 tuents, nor any amount of supply of some only, of those re- 

 quired for the respiration, the perspiration, the excrements, 

 and the increase, can eLable the animal to obtain a particle 

 of what is requisite for these from any other source than his 

 food. 



In the case of stock-foods, therefore, the scope for econo- 

 mical manufacture or concentration is very limited. Among 

 the natural complex foods, hay may he said to be more con- 

 centrated than straw, and corn more concentrated than hay. 

 Of the individual non-nitrogenous, or so-called respiratory 

 and fat-forming constituents of food, fatty matter is very 

 much more concentrated than starch or sugar. But our 

 ruminant animals cannot thrive upon exclusively concen- 

 trated food, even though it be so in the limited degree in 

 which it exists in corn. They require a certain amount of 

 the bulky but innutritious woody fibre, which they find al- 

 ready combined with other constituents in hay or straw. 

 Those animals, such as pigs, which do not require the same 

 proportion of woody fibre for their digestive operations, are 

 provided with a suitable combination of starch, sugar, oil, 

 nitrogenous substance, and mineral matters — already 

 formed in corn and other natural foods — far more economi- 

 cally than they could be supplied with them by the inter- 

 vention of manufacturing processes. 



There is, in fact, only one manufactured staple article of 

 food employed by the farmer with advantage on the large 

 scale. This is oilcake, Even oilcake is not manufactured 

 exclusively for the purpose of feeding I it is the residue of 

 a process for obtaining oil, the value of which, to a great ex- 

 tent, meets the cost of the production of the cake. The 



cake was produced before there was any demand for it as 

 food for stock. It would continue to be produced if the 

 farmer did not so employ it. Its price as food is not regu- 

 lated 80 much by the cost of production, as by what the 

 farmer will give for it in competition with other articles. 

 It may be mentioned, however, that many of the recently- 

 introduced manufactured foods cost four or five times as 

 much, weight for weight, as our most nutritive oilcakes. 



From all that has been said, it will be clear that 

 these newly manufactured foods cannot substitute 

 any of the necessary constituents contained in our 

 ordinary stock foods any further than they themselves 

 supply thera. So far as the mere supply of alimentary con- 

 stituents is concerned, a mixture of linsi'ed or oilcake, and 

 corn-meal, can provide these at one-fourth to one- 

 fifth the cost of the specially-made artificial foods. Such foods 

 cannot therefore be relied upon as staple articles. The virtues 

 which they really do possess over and above those which could 

 be secured at one-fourth to one-fifth the price are confined, 

 therefore, to the action on the health and digestion of the ani- 

 mals of the small amount of stimulating and carminative seeds 

 which they contain. In fact, so far, they are sauce or medi- 

 cine, rather than food. As such they are likely rather to in- 

 crease than diminish the appetite for further nutriment. Still 

 it is quite possible that, if judiciously compounded, they may 

 be of service in keeping horses in a more healthy state of body, 

 or in aiding the digestive powers of weakly animals which do 

 not readily consume and thrive upon the ordinary foods. It 

 should, however, be clearly understood by the farmer, that 

 these manufactured foods canuot do away with the necessity 

 for a given amount of digestible and assimilable constituents 

 in the collaterally-consumed ordinary food. There is, as yet, 

 no exact evidence to show that they can, even in their ofKce of 

 condiments or medicines, enable the animals profitably to ap- 

 propriate a larger proportion than they otherwise would, of the 

 constituents of the other food they consume. That is to say, 

 there is no proof afforded, that with their use there is either a 

 larger amount of increase obtained for a given amount of food 

 constituents consumed, or that a smaller amount of the food 

 constituents passes off unused and effete in the faces. 



Below are given the results of the practical trial of the food, 

 the proximate analysis of which has been already recorded* 

 The plan of the experiment was as follows : 6 pigs were se- 

 lected and divided into two lots of 3 each, the collective 

 weights of the respective lots differing from one another by 

 only 21b3. To lot No. 1 a mixture was given, composed of 9 

 parts barley-meal and 1 part bran. To lot No. 2 the same 

 mixture of barley-meal and bran was given, with the addition 

 of 2 parts of the manufactured food to every tea parts of the 

 barley and bran mixture. The food was in each case stirred 

 up with hot water, and both lots were allowed as much of their 

 respective foods as they chose to eat. The results of this com- 

 parative experiment were as follows : — 



