278 



THE KOTHAMSTED EXPERIMENTS. 



Proportion 

 of animal 

 substance 

 consumed 

 as food. 



Composi- 

 tion of the 

 entire ani- 

 mal. 



product of the feeding process is saleable as human food, to 

 consider what proportion of the fat, and of the nitrogenous 

 substance of the slaughtered animals will, on the average, be 

 consumed as human food in one form or another. The result 

 of much inquiry leads to the conclusion that, in our own 

 country, on the average, the whole of the carcass fat, and 

 about one-fifth of the offal fat, of oxen will be consumed ; 

 that of sheep, an amount equal to the whole of their carcass 

 fat will be consumed ; and that of the pig, an amount equal 

 to the whole of its carcass fat, and, in addition, more or less 

 of its offal fat, will be sold and consumed as food. 



Calculation leads to the conclusion, that about one-sixth of 

 the whole of the nitrogenous matter of the collective offal 

 parts of oxen will, on the average, be consumed, but that the 

 whole of the nitrogenous matter reclaimed as food from the 

 offal parts will fall short of the amount contained in the bones 

 of the carcass. So nearly, however, will these quantities balance 

 one another, especially if a portion of the gelatine from the 

 carcass-bones be consumed, that it may be assumed that, of 

 the total nitrogenous substance of the bodies of these animals, 

 only about as much as, or very little more than, is repre- 

 sented by the total amount in the carcasses, will be consumed. 

 In the case of pigs, however, a larger proportion of the 

 total nitrogenous substance of the body will be consumed 

 than in that of the other animals ; but, as the table shows, 

 the percentage of total nitrogenous substance is less, and 

 that of the fat much greater, in the pig than in the other 

 animals. 



Upon the whole, therefore, it would seem that the propor- 

 tion of the consumed fat to the consumed nitrogenous sub- 

 stance will, on the average, be greater than its proportion in 

 the total carcasses of the fattened animals. Such is pretty 

 certainly the case in our own country ; but the relations are 

 admittedly far otherwise in the United States, and it is, to 

 say the least, very questionable whether the difference is to 

 the advantage of the consumers in that country. 



Let us now turn to the lower division of the Table (68), 

 showing the composition of the entire bodies of the animals, 

 which, of course, represents the gross product of the feeding 

 process. It is this, therefore, that is of most interest to the 

 farmer to consider in connection with the composition of the 

 food expended in its production. 



As was the case in the carcasses, there is also in the entire 

 bodies a marked diminution in the percentage of mineral 

 matter as the animal matures. Judging from the results of 

 the analyses of the ashes of the animal bodies, it may be 

 stated in general terms that about, or rather more than, 40 



