140 Feeds and Feeding. 



Weight of grain Per cent. 



Number of varieties in test. per bushel. kernel. 



4 36 Ibs. 68 



3 34 Ibs. 67 



7 30 Ibs. 69 



Here we observe that the lightest oats yielded the highest per- 

 centage weight of kernels to hull. This test points to the conclu- 

 sion that light oats are not necessarily low in actual nutriment, 

 and is contrary to the teaching of Eichardson. 



The oat grain shows a higher proportion of digestible protein 

 than corn or wheat, while in ether extract it exceeds wheat and 

 nearly equals corn. With a lower carbohydrate content, the 

 nutritive ratio is such that this grain contains within itself quite 

 a well balanced ration for farm animals. 



A hull-less variety of oats is occasionally grown in this country. 

 For poultry and swine it serves a useful purpose, but for other 

 farm stock, varieties of oats with hulls are preferable. 



187. New oats unfit for feeding. Storer l treats of this question 

 in the following words: u As all horse keepers know, new oats 

 are unfit to be given to working horses. They loosen the bowels 

 of the animals, make their flesh watery, or ' soften them down, J 

 as the term is; i. e., they render animals apt to sweat easily, and, in 

 general, put them ( out of condition. ' How or why the new oats 

 produce these effects is not known; but in the course of a few 

 months after harvest, and especially after cold weather has set in, 

 the oats undergo a change of some kind, either of after-ripening 

 or of fermentation, and are thereafter fit to be fed to horses. 

 Probably this difference between new and old oats depends upon 

 a change in the chemical composition of some one peculiar, and, 

 so to say, medicinal constituent of the oat grain. " 



188. A stimulating principle in oats. The mettle shown by the 

 horse nurtured on oats has led to the supposition that this grain 

 contains a stimulating principle. In 1885 Norton separated an 

 albuminoid from the oat grain which Johnston named " avenine." 

 Later work of the chemists effectually did away with Johnston's 

 albuminoid, and it was left to Sanson 2 to announce the discovery 



1 Agriculture in Some of Ite Relations with Chemistry, Vol. II. 



2 Comptes Bendus 96, I, p. 75; Biederm. Centralbl., 1884, p. 20. 



istry, vol. 

 ., 1884, p. 



