242 THE BEAN CROP. 



animal life, every process of respiration is carried on at 

 the expense and consumption of some of the non-nitro- 

 genous portions of its food, and every process of motion is 

 equally carried on at the expense of the nitrogenous por- 

 tions of it. Consequently, the harder the work and the 

 more constant the motion, the larger the consumption of 

 these constituents of the food, and the greater the neces- 

 sity to replace them, in order to sustain the normal con- 

 dition of the animal body. In working horses we see the 

 good effect of the mixture of a proportion of beans with 

 their oats, especially if the work be very heavy coach - 

 work and hunting, for instance or the animal be old, 

 and its power of assimilation consequently reduced. In- 

 deed, horses seem instinctively to recognize the restora- 

 tive value of beans to their exhausted powers, by the 

 eagerness with which they welcome the mixture in their 

 regular food, and the manner in which they pick them 

 out from the other grain. To prevent this, and to insure 

 their proper mastication, it is always advisable to split 

 them, or, better still, to crush them, before mixing with 

 the oats and chaff. 



Bean-meal, too, enters very beneficially into human 

 consumption, when mixed with other substances, so as 

 to secure the necessary balance between the two classes 

 of food-materials already described. It is frequently 

 added in the proportion of one-tenth to one-twentieth 

 part to wheat-flour in bread-making, which it greatly 

 improves. In the north, especially by the working classes, 

 it is consumed in much larger proportions, both in their 

 panary compounds (cakes, bannocks, &c.), and in their 

 soups and broths. Everywhere, where the animal frame 

 is called upon to undergo severe exertion, beans, or some 

 other leguminous seed, may be used beneficially and 

 economically to replace the consequent wear and tear, and 



