48 



VOELCKER on the Chemistry of Food. 



The differences in the composition of the straw of our cereals 

 are trifling. There is but a small amount of flesh -forming matters 

 and a large amount of indigestible woody fibre in straw, which 

 fully explains its low feeding value. Oat-straw, however, when 

 still somewhat green at the top, is much more nutritious than the 

 sample the composition of which is here stated. 



Pea and Bean Straw. The composition of two varieties of 

 bean-straw is stated by Dr. Anderson as follows : 



The mean of the analyses by Boussingault, Hertwig, and 

 Sprengel, gives for the composition of pea-straw the following 

 results : 



Bean and pea straw thus are rich in flesh-forming constituents, 

 and differ in this respect materially from the straw of all our 

 cereals, which are far less valuable as feeding materials. 



Having stated the composition of most articles of food which 

 are employed by the British farmer for feeding or fattening of 

 stock, some considerations may find here an appropriate place, 

 which ought to be well weighed in estimating the nutritive value 

 of food and its adaptation to particular purposes. 



It having been shown by analysis that all the richer kinds of 

 food contain a large amount of flesh-forming constituents, and that 

 no article of food entirely deficient in these principles can support 

 the healthy existence or growth of animals, great importance is 

 necessarily attached to this class of substances in food. We have 

 seen, however, that though essential to the very existence of 



