CHAP. XH. FLAVOUR OF FOODS. 221 



times their intrinsic value. The fact is of itself a sufficient comment 

 on what has been already stated, and the truth is that the ' discoveries ' 

 of which the makers of these foods boast are confined to the art of extract- 

 ing money from the pockets of the farmer. The general conclusions to 

 be drawn from what has been now said may be summed up in a very 

 few words : 1st. Common salt, the most important condiment, has no 

 effect in promoting the assimilation of the food, and, when used in 

 larger quantity, has rather a tendency to produce a waste of nutritive 

 matters. 2nd. Both it and phosphate of lime, and probably other 

 mineral substances, may exercise a beneficial effect on health when 

 the quantity existing in the food is less than the animal requires. 3rd. 

 There is not the slightest reason to suppose that the so-called condi- 

 mental foods produce any effect in the animal, as they consist only of 

 ordinary grains mixed with small quantities of aromatic and bitter sub- 

 stances, which, so far as our present knowledge goes, do not in any 

 way affect the nutrition of animals." 



In so far as condiments are used to impart flavour to food they are 

 undoubtedly serviceable. They then confer upon the food a quality 

 which renders it more relished by live stock, and therefore more readily 

 eaten. It is not easy to define what is meant by flavour : it is, indeed, 

 BO subtle a character that the balance of the chemist can give no record 

 of it. Nevertheless, it is, in the hands of the skilful feeder, a factor 

 too important to be neglected, and one which, rightly controlled, is 

 productive of beneficial results. 



Whatever may be advanced against the use of condimental foods 

 from a purely scientific point of view and that there may be, and is, 

 much which can be so, must be admitted on a candid review of the 

 whole of the statements made, still facts must not be overlooked. 

 And one fact is beyond all dispute that the number of experienced 

 practical farmers and breeders and feeders of the highest eminence 

 who use these foods is on the increase. And this not after only occa- 

 sional use of them, as if by way of mere tentative experiment, but after 

 the steady persistent employment of them as part of the feeding mate- 

 rials used in the daily practice of the farm. Taking, then, a merely 

 common-sense view of the matter, it is somewhat difficult to bring 

 one's mind to believe that a class of men well known to be particularly 

 careful, and said to be anything but open to the " allurements of new 

 things," should not only continue to use these foods, but that the 

 number who do use them is, as we have stated, on the increase. We 

 have no desire to take a one-sided view as we have no interest in 

 doing so of the matter. We have a simple plain duty to perform to 

 our readers, and this is done by putting both sides of the question 

 before them, leaving them to judge for themselves on the points at 

 issue between the purely scientific and the purely practical man. 



We cannot conclude this chapter without referring again to a 

 condiment used in food which has an important influence in the health 

 of stock ; we refer to salt. 



Some of our older readers, who can " go back a bit," may remember 

 a pamphlet which was most extensively advertised under the curious 



