64 DEPARMENT OF AGRICULTURE^ GEORGIA. [350] 



volatile part of vegetation, and furnish the fat and flesh 

 producing principles of animal food. 



A knowledge of the relative proportion of these two 

 groups of plant constituents is df prime importance to the 

 farmer, since the efficacy of the food of animals depends, in 

 a large measure, upon the proper combination of the fat and 

 flesh forming principles. 



This will be more fully discussed under the head of 

 Plants and their products as food for animals. 



Vegetable Albumen may be obtained by heating nearly to 

 the boiling point the liquid which is decanted from potato 

 starch, as previously directed, collecting the coagulum 

 which forms on the surface, and boiling it successively with 

 alcohol and ether to remove fat and coloring matters. A 

 substance is thus formed resembling very closely the albu- 

 men of eggs. 



Albumen may be extracted from the flour of wheat, oats, 

 rye, or barley, by similar treatment of water in which it 

 has been agitated for some time. 



Vegetable fibrin may be obtained from wheat-flour, by 

 kneading the,dough for some time in a vessel of water, the 

 first product being gluten, from which the, vegetable fibrin 

 may be dissolved out by alcohol, which latter may be re- 

 moved by evaporation, leaving nearly pure fibrin. It is 

 soluble in hot alcohol, very slightly in cold alcohol, and not 

 at all in water. 



Vegetable casein occurs in peas and beans, as well as in 

 the seeds of other leguminous plants, amounting in some 

 to from 17 to 19 per cent. It very closely resembles ani- 

 mal casein as found in milk. It is found in smaller per- 

 centages in other seeds and in tubers. 



The Chinese make a vegetable cheese, called Tao-foo, 

 by boiling peas to a pulp, straining the liquid, coagulating 

 it with gypsum, and then treating the curd thus obtained 

 in the same manner as milk-cheese is treated. 



Prof. Johnson gives, in "How Crops Grow, "page 102, the 



