FOODS ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 171 



game time the presence of high-quality ingredients adds nothing to the value of the 

 inferior constituents. Grinding corn with oat hulls, for instance, may not injure 

 the corn, but it does not improve the hulls. They are still hulls and retain all their 

 characteristics as a feeding stuff. ' ' 



In order to study the effect of introducing- oat feeds into grain 

 rations, a digestion experiment was made with sheep, one of the com- 

 mercial oat feeds sold in New York being used. The average coeffi- 

 cients of digestibilit}'^ obtained were as follows: Dry matter 58, organic 

 matter 59.5, protein 82.5, fat 92, nitrogen-free extract 60.5, and crude 

 liber 33 per cent. 



This result was compared with the average coefficients of digestibility 

 of whole oats and maize, the comparison showing in the authors' opinion 

 that whole oats furnished about 12 per cent and maize 31 per cent more 

 total nutritive material than the oat feed. Besides the material includ- 

 ing the entire grain is of better quality, being made up more usually 

 of protein and the easily digested carbohydrates. 



The authors also report the analysis of a number of condimental 

 feeding stuffs. 



"In these mixtures were found, as the principal constituent, some common feeding 

 stuff like bran or other wheat offals, corn offals, linseed meal, and so on. The 

 special ingredients added ostensibly for medicinal effect, were found to include char- 

 coal, fenugreek, gentian, sulphur, salt, saltpeter, sodium sulphate, iron compounds, 

 and pepi:)er. 



"Particular attention is called to the prices at which these 'foods' are sold. The 

 range is from $100 to $500 per ton, which is at least from .?70 to $470 per ton more 

 than the materials are worth for food purposes. It may be claimed, as some of the 

 manufacturers urge, that these mixtures should be regarded as medicines. Even if 

 this is true the farmer who wishes to administer any of these common substances to 

 his animals can do so at a small fraction of their cost in condimental foods by pur- 

 chasing them as drugs and then mixing them with the grain ration as he wishes. 

 For the promoters of these mixtures to claim that they have an}' knowledge of com- 

 pounds and compounding not common to veterinary medicine is charlatanism in its 

 most offensive form." 



On the influence ■which the kind and amount of food exercises 

 upon the amount of metabolism and the po-wer to perform w^ork, 



E. Pfluger {Arch. Phjxiol. {Pfng.i\ 77 {1S99), Xn. 9-10, pp. 1^25- 

 It.82). — The author reports a number of experiments with cats and dogs. 

 In some cases the balance of income and outgo of nitrogen was deter- 

 mined, as well as the respirator}^ quotient. Experiments were made 

 under different conditions of feeding and fasting. 



The experiments are discussed in relation to the early work of Bid- 

 der and Schmidt,^ and the theories of nutrition and the production of 

 energy promulgated by Voit and his followers. The author's principal 

 deductions folloAv: 



The addition of protein to a maintenance ration caused an increase in 

 metabolism and the productive power. Further, it caused an increase 



' Abstracted in U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bui. 45. 



