200 Kansas Academij of Science. 



wholly upon the products of the corn plant, another upon products of 

 wheat plant, a third upon products of the oat plant, and the fourth upon 

 a mixture of equal quantities of products from the three plants, corn, 

 wheat and oats. The corn ration consisted of corn stover, corn meal 

 and gluten feed; the wheat ration of wheat straw, wheat meal and wheat 

 gluten; the oats ration of oat straw and rolled oats. The feeds were 

 balanced to a nutritive ratio of 1.8, that is, of the total energy avail- 

 able to the animals about one-ninth, or about eleven per cent, was from 

 protein. 



The results of the trial cannot be given in anything but outline at 

 this time. It was found that there was nothing in the rates of growth or 

 the total gains in live weight to indicate that one ration was very much 

 superior to another. At the end of two years, however, there was a 

 marked difference in the appearance of the corn lot and the wheat lot, 

 the other two being intermediate. The corn-fed animals looked smooth 

 of coat, fuller through the barrel and were in a better state of nutrition 

 than any of the others. The wheat-fed animals had rough coats, were 

 gaunt and thin in appearance, and small of girth and barrel, and to the 

 eye of the practical man in a lower state of nutrition. 



The greatest differences in the lots were shown in the performance of 

 the reproductive function. Within the last two years of the experiment 

 the four cows of the corn-fed lot produced eight strong and vigorous 

 calves, all of which lived. With the wheat-fed lot, six weak calves were 

 produced. One was born dead, the others died within a few hours. The 

 second year one of the cows died of anthrax and another by accident, 

 and on this account there were but six calves in the lot. The oats-fed 

 cows produced one dead calf, one so weak that it died on the third day, 

 and six that, though of varying degrees of weakness at birth, were able 

 to live by the aid of special nursing in some cases. The cows receiving 

 the mixture ration gave birth to two dead calves, one that lived only six 

 hours, and three that lived, although weak or only fairly strong. One of 

 these cows was not with calf the second year, and one aborted the first 

 year by reason of an accident. 



This highly suggestive experiment, only the main features of which 

 have been touched at all, shows that the entire corn plant was markedly 

 superior to the oat plant, wheat plant, or a mixture of all three of these, 

 in the nutrition of heifers when subjected to the strain of maternity and 

 lactation. This does not prove that similar relations would exist with 

 other species of animals. The experimenters, Messrs. Hart, McCollum 

 and others, were not able to determine the cause of the superior results 

 given by the corn ration. 



I cannot conclude this incomplete discussion of the nutritional char- 

 acteristics of corn without some reference to pellagra. This disease, 

 which is coming increasingly into prominence, has been observed to affect 

 many whose diet consists almost entirely of polenta, a sort of corn-meal 

 mush, and it has been suspected that corn is the cause of the disease. By 

 some it is thought to be the result of consuming unsound rather than 

 unaltered corn products. While the problem cannot be regarded as fully 

 solved yet, and corn completely acquitted from responsibility, there is at 

 present no proof that corn in any form causes the disease. 



