i82 FOODS [CHAP. 



products, such as starch ; they are in consequence foods 

 specially rich in proteins, and have proved valuable in 

 feeding milch cows and for young stock growing or in 

 the early stages of fattening. 



Of the cereals, oats are the richest, containing the 

 highest proportions of both proteins and fat ; they are 

 valuable for all classes of stock, and always wholesome. 

 Wheat requires more careful feeding, but barley again 

 forms a very safe general food, containing a large propor- 

 tion of carbohydrates. Experience has shown that the 

 deficiency of barley in protein is best corrected by the use 

 of cotton cake. Maize is chiefly a carbohydrate-contain- 

 ing food, and however valuable for work and for fattening, 

 as regards its proteins it must be considered as rather a 

 low-grade type of food. Beans and peas are both rich 

 in proteins ; they are amongst the most valuable of foods 

 for either young growing stock, horses, pigs, or sheep ; 

 an admixture of bean meal is also good in a ration for 

 milch cows. 



Oat straw is generally a little richer than either 

 barley or wheat straw, but the variations in composition 

 between oat straw from different fields or different 

 varieties is greater than the differences between oat and 

 barley or wheat straw. Only one analysis of straw has 

 consequently been given in the table. The composition 

 of hay is also very variable, because differences due to 

 the making are also added to the differences induced by 

 the nature of the herbage, the soil, or the season. Of 

 the different roots, potatoes contain by far the most dry 

 matter, (25 per cent), then mangolds with about 12 per 

 cent, swedes with a little less, and turnips with less than 

 10 per cent They are all in the main carbohydrate 

 foods : the potato contains starch, the mangold sugar, 

 while swedes and turnips contain various pectic bodies 

 as well as sugars. A large proportion of their nitrogen 



