20 



VOELCKER on the Chemistry of Food. 



4. CEREAL GRAINS (Wheat, Oats, Barley, Indian Corn). The 

 average composition of the cereal grains generally employed 

 in England for feeding purposes is stated in the following 

 table : 



It deserves to be noticed likewise, that wheat and barley con- 

 tain but a small proportion of ready-made fatty matters (about 

 2 per cent.), whereas oats contain on an average 6 per cent, of oil, 

 and Indian corn from 8 to 9 per cent. 



In these analyses the indigestible fibre has been determined 

 separately, and thus a much better opinion of the real nutritive 

 value of grain can be formed than would have been possible 

 had the determination of this important point been neglected. 

 In explanation of these results, it must be stated that the propor- 

 tion of woody fibre does not vary much in different samples of 

 wheat, but that exceedingly great differences in the amount of 

 woody fibre are observed in barley, and especially in oats. 



I am inclined to attribute to this circumstance the diversity of 

 opinion which is entertained by practical feeders respecting the 

 feeding properties of barley and oats. There can indeed be no 

 doubt that in some localities of England, where the soil is pecu- 

 liarly well adapted to the growth of barley, this farinaceous grain 

 is superior in nutritive power to oats ; and, on the other hand, a 

 district remarkable for good and plump oats may well produce 

 more nutritious oats than barley. We are thus not entitled to say 

 in a general way that oats are more nutritious than barley, or vice 

 versa. Both opinions may be perfectly true in special instances. 

 In Scotland, celebrated for excellent oats, farmers are much more 

 in the habit of giving oats to fattening beasts than the English 

 farmer, who prefers barleymeal to oatmeal for that purpose. 

 There are good grounds for this choice of food, for English oats, 

 I believe, are generally greatly inferior in nutritive power to Scot- 

 tish oats. On the other hand, the soil and climate of Scotland 

 appear to be much less favourable to the production of a fine 

 sample of barley than the rich barley soils whjch abound in 

 several counties of England. The examination of several samples 

 of English barley, of Scotch and of English oats, has indeed 

 shown me that the predilection for oats by the farmers of Scot- 



