162 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



"If wheat (lid not bring more than 50 cts. a Inishel at harvest time and hogs 

 weighing from 50 to 100 lbs. eacli could be bought for $4.50 per hundred live weight, 

 the farmer could go into the market and purchase such hogs and start, about Sep- 

 tember 1, feeding them on wheat alon(!, under substantially the same conditions 

 existing during this experiment, with a fair prospect of realizing from 55 to 60 cts, 

 per bushel for his wheat. ... It would undoubtedly pay bettor to mix it with 

 some other food, particularly during the earlier stages of fattening. 



"Hogs fed on ground wheat made a more rapid and uniform gain, and jiroduced 

 pork of rather nicer quality ; but they also consumed more food than those fed upon 

 whole wheal. [The extra gain] would hardly pay for grinding, but considering the 

 better quality of the pork and greater weight, it would probably pay to grind, if 

 it coidd be done without much extra- cost. . . . 



"Hoo's fed on peas did much better, in proportion, during the first part of the 

 experiment than they did during the latter part, which would indicate that peas 

 are not as good for a complete ration for a long period as either wheat or corn. 



"The quality of the pork nuide from corn and giound wheat was about equal, and 

 was superior to that made from whole wheat, peas, or mixed food. That made from 

 mixed food was the fiittest. [Contrary to the general rule] the number of pounds 

 of food required for a pound of gain was greater during the first period than during 

 the second. . . . The most reasonable explanation of this circumstance is that it 

 was caused by the sudden change from plenty of exercise and a mixed diet to close 

 confinement and a single article of food. . . . 



"It was very plainly demonstrated that a considerably larger return per bushel for 

 food consumed would have been realized if the hogs had been sold at the end of the 

 second ^leriod (October 28). This was particularly true of lot 1, fed on peas." 



Do the ferments occurring in vegetable materials affect the 

 digestibility of these materials in the body? 11. Weiske {Ztschr. 

 2)]n/sioL Chem., 19, JS^o. 3, pp. 382-284). — It is known that certain veg- 

 etable materials contain ainylolytie, proteolytic, and otlier ferments 

 which under favorable conditions have a digestive action on these 

 materials Loth without and within the body, bnt which are rendered 

 inactive by heating. Ellenberger and Hofmeister especially have 

 demonstrated that both amylolytic and proteolytic ferments are widely 

 diifused in grains as oats, corn, rice, etc. ; and that when these grains 

 are fed raw a large part of the sugar production in the stomach is 

 attributable to the amylolytic ferment in the grains. 



The author reports an experiment on this point, already noted (E. S. 

 E., G, p. 66), in which rabbits were fed on raw oats, and oats heated to 

 100° C. to destroy the ferment. The heating did not appear to have 

 any effect upon the digestibility of the oats, and the author infers that 

 under normal conditions the presence of digestive ferments in the food 

 does not render the digestion in the body more complete. 



Horse feeding {Ugeskr. Landm., 39 {1894), p. S3i2). — A writer states that wheat is 

 far preferable to rye as a feed for horses, and that it ought to be used more exten- 

 sively than is now the case, e. g., in mixtures of equal weight of oats and wheat for 

 work horses. 



According to the same issue of the Ugeslcrift, it seems of late to have become a more 

 general practice in Europe to substitute Indian corn for oats as horse feed, but not 

 for riding horses and light carriage horses. The 10 larger street-car comjianies in 

 England, according to MagdeMrg Zeltung, feed their horses, on an average, 4.55 kg. 

 of Indian corn, 2.4 kg. of oats, 1.2 kg. of beans and peas, and 0.15 kg. of wheat bran. 



