EDITORIAL. 5 



tigation in animal nutrition, to promote more systematic and better 

 correlated study of feeding problems, and to facilitate personal 

 intercourse between investigators in this field." All persons engaged 

 in investigation or instruction in animal nutrition and related sub- 

 jects in the United States and Canada are eligible to membership. 



It augurs well for the society that at the first annual meeting the 

 membership had more than doubled since its organization, and thirty- 

 three States were represented. Although there were only a few 

 papers read, the society was fairly launched and the way prepared 

 for an important series of deliberations. 



The principal paper was the address by the president, Dr. H. P. 

 Armsby, upon The Food Supply of the Future. In this he departed 

 from the usual statistical and economic treatment, and dealt with the 

 relation of the animal feeder in conserving and utilizing more effi- 

 ciently the supply of food materials. The new point of view in this 

 presentation is an interesting and important contribution to the dis- 

 cussion of future food supply, which has recently been such a popular 

 theme. The address furnishes a strong argument for thorough-going 

 investigation in animal nutrition, and for a different kind of feeding 

 experiments. 



The problem of food supply, Dr. Armsby said, is essentially a 

 problem of energy supply, the ultimate source of which is the sun. 

 Food represents the stored-up energy of the sun's rays, and the density 

 of population which a country can support from its own resources is 

 limited absolutely by the amount of solar energy which can be re- 

 covered in the form of food products. It was shown that the larger 

 part of the energy stored in an acre of crop is contained in inedible 

 products. Thus, from one-half to two-thirds of the organic matter 

 of the corn crop is contained in the stover and cobs, and about 60 per 

 cent of that of the average wheat crop is in the straw. 



In the milling of wheat to prepare it for man's use, about 25 jDer 

 cent of the grain passes into the oflfals, and only 75 per cent serves 

 for purposes of human nutrition. In other words, out of the total 

 energy stored up by the growth of an acre of wheat, only about 30 

 per cent serves directly for the nutrition of man. Substantially the 

 same thing is true in greater or less degree of other food crops. 



The loss of human food in converting grains into meat was said to 

 be even more wasteful. In support of this, figures were cited from 

 Jordan to the effect that in the production of beef or mutton less than 

 8 per cent of the digestible organic matter in the feed is recovered as 

 human food in the edible portion of the carcass, and in the case of 

 })ork only about 15 per cent. 



" We can not continue indefinitely to use edible grains as stock 

 food — the waste of energy in the transformation is too great. . . . 

 The feeder of the future will utilize by-product feeds to an extent as 



