CHAP. xii. CONDIMENTAL FOODS. 219 



the animals did better on raw than on cooked potatoes' when equal 

 quantities, weighed in the raw state, were used. 



The following is a statement of the results of experiments of Colonel 

 McDoull, instituted with a view to decide the economy or otherwise of 

 cooking food : 



" They showed, amongst other things, that one feed of cooked food 

 per day, with two feeds of raw swedes, returned the most profit more so 

 than three feeds of raw swedes ; but when two feeds of cooked food were 

 given and only one feed of raw swedes, there was a loss. The food 

 consumed daily by each animal, when two feeds of turnips and one 

 feed of cooked food were given, was as follows : ' 84 Ib. of swedes and 

 one feed of cooked food at noon, consisting of 8 Ib. cut straw, boiled 

 along with 3 Ib. of bean meal ; ' the latter, the bean meal, being 

 increased towards the conclusion of the experiment to 5 Ib. daily. The 

 same kind of cooked food was given to the lot, which was allowed two 

 prepared feeds per day, but in this case the daily quantity of turnips 

 consumed by each beast amounted only to 42 Ib." 



The pulping of roots, of which we have already given a description, 

 is of comparatively recent introduction. Its utility, as we have seen, 

 is pretty generally admitted by some, although much has been stated 

 in opposition to it by others. A very complete array of evidence as 

 to the advantage of the system will be found in vol. xx. part 2, first 

 series, of the " Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England." 



The use of condimental foods is a comparatively new feature of prac- 

 tical farming, and has given rise to a controversy which has not always 

 been conducted with the calmness befitting an important scientific dis- 

 cussion. It is impossible, within the limits of the present volume, to 

 go fully into all the details of the question. Much has been said and 

 can be said on both sides, and space only permits us, of the " pro " 

 and the " con," to give the following. The leading disputants are the 

 scientific and the practical men. The former, almost as a rule, argue 

 against the use of these foods ; the practical men are rather disposed 

 to believe there may be " something " in their use ; although, of 

 course, many practical men are convinced of their inutility, while some 

 men of science, on the contrary, think them beneficial. 



The following is an opinion of Dr. Anderson, who was chemist to 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. After referring 

 to the character which was, upon their first introduction, claimed for 

 them, that they were concentrated foods, containing in a very small 

 bulk a large proportion of nutritive matter, and that of course small 

 quantities might be used, Dr. Anderson says : 



" A minute examination of a number of them in the laboratory, 

 has shown that there has been n\> attempt to concentrate in the 

 sense in which that word is usually understood, for they all contain 

 just as much water and woody fibre as other vegetable substances, 

 and are, in fact, mixtures of the most ordinary materials, con- 

 sisting of Indian corn, rice, bean-meal, ground carob beans, and other 

 similar substances, along with small quantities of aromatic seeds, and 

 in nine instances a bitter substance, apparently gentian. It is absurd 



