130 OATS, BUCKWHEAT, RICE. 



shoot, communicating that sweetness so observable in 

 its first growth. 



c. Barley is moistened and laid in heaps to sprout; 

 when the sprouts have got to the proper length, the 

 heaps are opened, dried, and heated, to stop further 

 growth, and the sprouts are all rubbed off. The 

 barley is then in the state called malt; the sugar from 

 this is extracted to make beer, having all been formed 

 from its starch by the action of diastase. 



Oatmeal is little used as food in this country, but it 

 is equal, if not superior in its nutritious qualities, to 

 flour from any of the other grains; superior, I have 

 no doubt, to most of the fine wheaten flour of northern 

 latitudes. It contains from 10 to 18 per cent_of a 

 body having about the same amount of nitrogen as 

 gluten. Beside this there is a considerable quantity 

 of sugar and gum, and from 5 to 6 per cent of oil or 

 fatty matter; which may be obtained in the form of 

 a clear fragrant liquid. Oatmeal cakes owe their 

 peculiar agreeable taste and smell to this oil. Oat 

 meal, then, has not only an abundance of substance 

 containing nitrogen, but is also quite fattening. It is, 

 in short, an excellent food for working animals, and, 

 as has been abundantly proved in Scotland, for work 

 ing men also. 



SECTION II. OF BUCKWHEAT, RICE, INDIAN CORN, PEAS 

 AND BEANS. 



Buckwheat is less nutritious than the other grains 

 which we have noticed. Its flour has from 6 to 10 

 per cent of nitrogenous compounds; about 50 per 

 cent of starch, and from 5 to 8 of sugar and gum. In 

 speaking of buckwheat or of oats, we of course mean 

 without the husks. 



Rice was formerly supposed to contain little nitro 

 gen, but recent examinations have shown that there 



