Leading Cereals and their By-products. 121 



leathered in and about the corn germ lying at the base of the 

 kernel. Eich in starch and oil, the function of corn is plainly 

 to produce heat and fat when fed to farm animals. For fattening 

 purposes no other grain equals corn. Lacking in protein and ash, 

 this grain is not well suited for the production of bone and mus- 

 cle in young and growing animals. See Chapter VI, also Arti- 

 cle 421. 



156. Corn as human food. — Considering the nutrition it carries 

 and the market price, corn is by far the cheapest food offered to 

 mankind over a large part of the civilized world. That it has 

 not been more generally used can be explained only in part. In 

 the first place, corn meal cannot be made into a light, porous loaf, 

 as can flour from the wheat grain. Again, when reduced to meal 

 on grinding, the oil of the grain, and especially that in the germ, 

 soon becomes rancid, and the meal loses its palatability. This 

 trouble is remedied in part by processes of manufacture in which 

 the germ is removed. 



157. Corn cob. — Corn cobs consist largely of crude fiber and 

 consequently have a low feeding value. When corn has not 

 fully ripened, more nutriment remains in the cob, which is then 

 not so hard and woody. K deleterious fermentations have not 

 occurred, such cobs are readily eaten by cattle. Cob goes well 

 with the grain which produces it, and many cattle feeders are 

 satisfied with this use of an otherwise waste product, drawing 

 their conclusions from experience and observation. 



158. Corn and cob meal. — Sometimes corn together with the 

 cob which bears it are crushed at the same operation, the 

 resulting product being called '' corn and cob meal." Great dif- 

 ficulty is experienced in reducing the cob to reasonable fineness, 

 [f left coarse, farm animals usually push the pieces of cob aside 

 and consume only the meal; if ground sufficiently fine, much 

 power is required in the reduction. Difficulty is experienced in 

 finding mills suitable for this purpose and in providing power 

 sufficient for reducing the cobs. Eeasonably fine corn and cob 

 meal has been found very satisfactory for stock feeding. Experi- 

 ments by the Paris Omnibus Company i showed that com and cob 



'- Pott, Fuhling's Landw. ZeituDcr. 1893. p. 483. 



