202 THE BOOK OF CORN 



forming ingredients, such as starch, the sugars, etc, 

 designated as carbohydrates, and the fats, largely pre- 

 dominate ; and the other class containing a relatively 

 large amount of muscle-making material, commonly 

 known as protein. This protein is required for 

 good growth in young animals, and for breeding stock 

 and animals in milk, and is very valuable even in the 

 final fattening period. The line between these two 

 classes of foods cannot be sharply drawn in all cases, 

 some feeds being so nearly between the two as to be 

 as appropriately placed in one class as the other. 



As has already been pointed out, corn is the most 

 important representative of the carbonaceous group, 

 and we are here chiefly concerned in discovering the 

 materials which may be used to supply the protein in 

 which the corn is deficient. 



The foregoing table contains some of the more 

 important foods of this class, together with the digesti- 

 ble nutrients supplied by them. 



Among those who have essayed to give advice 

 on this subject are two classes of extremists. One 

 unduly exalts the value of the nitrogenous group of 

 nutrients and, by inference at least, insists that the 

 ration must have a more or less definite proportion 

 of protein in order to be adapted to a given purpose, 

 even regardless of convenience or cost. The other, 

 realizing the unsoundness of this extreme position, is 

 unwilling to concede that any financial benefit will 

 accrue from attempting to balance the ration to better 

 meet the requirements of the class of animals to which 

 it is to be fed. 



It is not difficult to discover the absurdity of the 

 position of the first class, when corn is worth, delivered 

 to the railroad, from twenty to twenty-five cents per 

 bushel, equivalent to seven to nine dollars per ton, and 

 corn stover may be had in abundance for the labor of 



