FEEDING OF CONTINUOUS CROPS 165 



All this may seem very complicated, but, after all, 

 it is only common sense. Potatoes, for instance, when 

 eaten alone, do not contain sufficient albuminoids for 

 a human being, and hence would not keep a man in 

 health, and, apart from this, if fed on nothing else the 

 man would become nauseated. Neither would a man 

 keep in health and live on a purely albuminous dietary 

 hke lean meat. The same applies to farm animals. 



Rice or Indian meal is comparatively deficient in 

 albuminoids for pig feeding, and whilst a fairly well- 

 grown pig could be fed on it, it would thrive very 

 slowly and probably get rickets. That the pig would 

 thrive on either meal, even though slowly, is due to 

 the fact that it would eat a large amount of the meals 

 in order to get a sufficiency of albuminoids, which 

 means passing through its body unused the excessive 

 amount of carbohydrates. 



MEASURING FOOD VALUES 



Just as we can express the length of a wall in feet 

 and inches, the quantity of a liquid in pints and the 

 weight of a substance in lbs., the heat of a substance in 

 degrees, so have we a unit to express the true values of 

 a food. This unit is known as the starch value. That 

 is to say, scientists have found just exactly what the 

 food value of a pound of starch was, and expressed all 

 food values in terms of starch. 



For instance, the starch value of linseed cake is 76, 

 which means that 100 lbs. of linseed cake for feeding 

 purposes — assuming it to be used in a properly 

 balanced ration — is equal to 76 lbs. of starch. In like 

 manner the starch value or equivalent of 7 lbs. of 

 vetch hay is 2-59, which means that this quantity 

 of vetch hay has the same feeding value, approxi- 

 mately, as 2 1 lbs. of starch. 



The starch value of foods, in a manner which need 



