TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION. IO9 



1. As regards organic food material Cape oats are equal in 

 value to those of other countries- 



2. The average percentage of lime in Cape oats is normal- 



3- The proportion of phosphoric oxide is somewhat lower than 

 the averages of published results from other countries- 



4. The small deficiency of phosphoric oxide is of less im- 

 portance than would appear at first sight, for in all oats 

 the proportion of phosphoric oxide relative to lime is large 

 as compared with the requirements of animals, and the 

 deficiency of the latter must therefore be made up to the 

 animal from sources other than oats- This will be the case 

 no matter in which country the oats are grown- 



The nett result of these conclusions is that if an animal 

 contracts a bone disease from being confined to oat rations, 

 such disease will occur quite irrespective of the source of the 

 oats, the latter cereal providing the animal with all the phos- 

 phates it needs for the bone structure, but an insufficient pro- 

 portionate amount of lime. 



The investigation was thereafter extended to wheat, and 

 forty-three samples of the latter were analysed with a view to 

 determine their feeding values. Six of these were imported 

 from oversea ; the remaining" thirty-seven were grown in the 

 Cape Province. The proteins oi the Cape wheats were found 

 to be as rule lower and the carbohydrates higher than in four 

 out of the six imported wheats examined. 



Immediately upon the conclusion of the wheat analyses a 

 preliminary investigation of Colonial barley was begun, because 

 of the oft-repeated statement that brewers had found it inferior 

 to the imported cereal for their purposes. Samples were there^ 

 fore procured from the Worcester, Robertson and Montagu 

 districts, and analysed in the Cape Town laboratory. The alleged 

 defect was that Cape barleys contained an excessive amount of 

 undesirable nitrogenous constituents ; however, the preliminary 

 investigation revealed the proportion of nitrogen in the Cape 

 barleys to be considerably lower than the proportions which 

 characterise .brewing barleys from oversea, so that, if a low pro- 

 portion of nitrogen in itself indicate good quality in a brewing 

 barley, the Cape barleys would be excellent. The opinion is, how- 

 ever, that what affects for the worse the brewing qualities of a 

 barley is not so much the quantity of the nitrogenous constituents 

 as their nature. The investigation is at the present moment 

 being carried out on a scale comparable in extent with the oats 

 and wheat investigations already referred to, and forty-six 

 samples of barley, grown in seven separate districts of the Pro- 

 vince, are now under chemical analysis. 



It is intended to continue these investigations in connection 

 with the other cereals, and with the co-operation of Mr. J. 

 Burtt-Davy, F.L.S., steps have already been taken to obtain rep- 

 resentative samples of maize. In this case, the Union of South 

 Africa being now an accomplished fact, the samples are being 

 collected not from the Cape Province alone, but from all parts 

 of the Union where the cereal is grown. Apropos of this latter 

 phase of the investigation, the possibility of establishing the 



