COMPOSITION AND FEEDING VALUE 97 



the cottonseed meal was firmer but of inferior tex- 

 ture. While horse beans of many varieties have 

 been fed and several experiments conducted to de- 

 termine the exact feeding value, Lavalard finds that 

 beans may be substituted for oats in the rations of 

 all classes of horses, and that horses fed on beans 

 show greater endurance than those that receive 

 oats. Beans are recommended for stallions in service 

 and for hard working horses. He recommends that 

 they be fed in about half quantity of the oat ration 

 and straw, and other coarse fodder added. The 

 beans were fed cracked. In substituting beans in 

 the ration V2. pound equals approximately i pound 

 of oats. The same authority cautions farmers 

 against feeding beans to horses less than one year 

 old. For steers beans have been partially tested as 

 to feeding values, although they are fed to a con- 

 siderable extent. 



Beans as human food. — Professor Snyder has 

 published* some comprehensive experiments on the 

 value of beans as human food. The experiments 

 of digestibility and nutritive value of beans were 

 made with healthy men, and the greatest degree of 

 digestibility was secured when the beans were eaten 

 in a mixed ration. When the skins were removed 

 by parboiling, the beans were more readily acted 

 upon by the digestive solvents, as pepsin, diastase 

 and pancreatin. In 12 hours 25 per cent more of 

 the protein nutrient was digested when the skins 

 of the beans were removed than when the beans 

 were baked in a similar way without removal of the 

 skins. 



•Minn Sta, Bui 74; also Fanners' Bui 169, U S dept of affri. 



