THIS SELECTION OF FOODS 5! 



justify such a course. It may also be justifiable to feed 

 them out of balance. 



Analysis not a complete guide. When selecting 

 rations for feeding the fact should be borne in mind that 

 the chemical analysis of foods is not a complete guide as 

 to their feeding value-. It is not for the reason first, that 

 the analysis does not give the exact degree of the 

 digestibility, second, that it says nothing about the palat- 

 ability, and third, that it takes no account of the influ- 

 ence which the product exercises on the general diges- 

 tion. 



The analysis gives the various components of any food 

 viewed from the standpoint of the nutrients which it con- 

 tains, but it does not always tell what proportion of the vari- 

 ous nutrients is digestible. Two foods may give the same 

 chemical analysis and yet the feeding value of the one 

 may greatly exceed that of the other, for no other reason 

 than that a much larger proportion of the several nutri- 

 ents in the one are more digestible than in the other. Of 

 course the digestibility of foods viewed from the stand- 

 point of averages has been worked out by the chemist 

 and the experimenter laboring in conjunction, but the 

 digestibility can only be taken as an approximate guide. 



The importance of palatability in foods as a measure 

 of their value is very great. Other things being equal, a 

 food is valuable in proportion as it is palatable, that is, 

 in proportion to the degree of the palatability which it 

 possesses, and in proportion to the percentage of the 

 same consumed as the result of such palatability. The 

 analysis of the chemist can throw no light on either 

 aspect of this question. At one time it was supposed 

 that palatability was important only because of the in- 

 fluence which it exercised on the consumption of food. 

 Now it is known that it exercises more or less influence 

 on digestion. That has been demonstrated by experi- 

 ment. It aids digestion by increasing the flow of the 

 gastric juices and possibly in other ways. But the most 



