FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING. 421 



pra(!tice got the start of theory ; and I own, with perfect humility, 

 that I think its conchisioiis are in general greatly to be preferred ; 

 ihe universal custom of giving oil-cake and oleaginous seeds to our 

 mileh-kine and fatting oxen and sheep, appears to me to supply an 

 argument of much greater force than any that can be obtained from 

 ciiemical researches pursued in the laboratory. 



Such articles as the potato and the banana, which answer admi- 

 rably for the keep of hogs after they are weaned, are not adequate to 

 fatten them for the butcher ; they contain but very small quantities 

 of fatty matter, and tho\]gh the animals will grow rapidly upon them, 

 and even attain to and maintain a certain condition, all that is re- 

 quired can only be secured by adding some other article to the ration 

 that is richer in oleaginous or fatty prmciples. At Bechelbronn, 

 whatever others have said on the subject, we find that our hogs will 

 not fatten on potatoes alone ; so that I agree with Schwertz when 

 he says, that while hogs will get into good flesh upon potatoes, and 

 even seem to fatten for a time, they soon cease from improving, and 

 only begin to advance again when they receive in addition an allow- 

 ance of barley or of split peas or beans. 



A young pig will consume about 13 lbs. of potatoes ])er diem, into 

 which, as analysis of the ashes informs us, there enters but about 

 17.2 grs. of lime. But this quantity is probably too small to meet 

 the demand for bone earth in a young animal in full growth, and 

 hence the great advantage of the whey or small quantity of skim 

 milk which is so commonly added to the potato ration. It ought to 

 be laid down as a general rule, that young creatures as well as adults 

 ought to have a ration which contains the earthy elements of the 

 bony system, the azotized elements of the flesh, and the fatty matter 

 of the fat. From a series of experiments which I undertook, in 

 concert with Messrs. Dumas and Payen, it appears that all the arti- 

 cles acknowledged the most pow^erful as fatteners, are those also 

 that contain the largest proportions of fatty principles. The follow- 

 ing substances contain the numerical quantities of matter soluble in 

 ether in 100 parts : 



Common maize 8.8 Dr^'lucern 3.5 



Beaked Lombardy maize 7.8 Mead«\vhay 3.8 



Large white Parisian maize 8.1 African wheat straw 3.2 



Rice 0.8 Ditto Alsace 2.2 



Oats 5.5 Ditto near Paris 2.4 



Ditto 3.3 Oat straw 5.1 



Rye 1.8 Beanmeal 2.1 



Rye flour 3.5 Beans 2.0 



Hard Venezuela wheat 2.6 Haricots 3.0 



Hard African wheat 2.1 Peas 2.0 



Wheat flour 2.J Lentils 2.5 



Ditto 1.4 Potatoes 0.08 



Fine bran 4.8 Mangel-wurzel 0.1 



Coarsebran 5.2 Carrots 0.17 



Dry clover- 4.0 Oil-cake 9-0 



M. Payen found that the oil was everywhere present in the seeds 

 of gramineous plants. The embryo contains much, the husk less, 

 the farinaceous portion still less. But maize and oil-cake contain 

 ■about 9 per cent., whence the universally admitted superior fattening 

 power of these two articles. 



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