356 FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



great importance, which is the pancreatic juice; it is, as its name implies, 

 secreted by the pancreas and enters the intestines jointly with the bile. These 

 two secretions by their combination have some role to fill which they cannot 

 accomplish when acting separately. The pancreatic fluid like the ptyalin of 

 saliva helps to convert starch into sugar; one gram is said to be sufficient to 

 convert 40 kilos of starch into sugar. The pancreatic juice converts fat into 

 salty acids and glycerin, and will change albuminoids into peptones; it will 

 effect this transformation even in an alkaline solution. 



Food, during its passage through the intestine, undergoes an absorption or 

 osmotic action. The small intestines are lined with protruding particles, 

 called '* villi," whose role is to separate from the fluids, with which they come 

 into contact, the fat, sugar, peptones and salts; these are forced to pass through 

 the ducts of the lymphatic system. The fluid thus formed is known as chyle, 

 and, owing to the fat held in solution, it has a milk-like appearance. 



During all these chemical and physical transformations, considerable inter- 

 change occurs of which we know comparatively little. Besides the fluids 

 mentioned which act upon foods during their passage through the intestinal 

 canal, there are other secretions helping assimilation; for example, in the 

 small intestine there is a special gland secretion which like the active principle 

 of saliva will convert starch into sugar. As food progresses along the in- 

 testinal canal, its nutritive value becomes less and less, and when reaching the 

 second half of the large intestine it is almost an excrement, its color depend- 

 ing upon the kind of fodder and the condition of the bile at the time of feed- 

 ing. Upon general principles, we may admit that the large intestine of cattle 

 in general serves as a storage during the passage of the fodder not entirely 

 assimilated; there follows in the large intestine a sort of digestion due to the 

 fermentation of cellulose which had thus far not been dissolved by the action 

 of the digestive juices. In conclusion, it is to be said that all fodders are 

 not equally acted upon by the gastric juice. In cereals, if the starch cells 

 have not been thoroughly broken, they pass through the intestinal canal 

 almost untouched. In order to get a satisfactory assimilation in feeding, it is 

 desirable that the quantity of dry substance used correspond to that actually 

 needed by the animal; it can vary from 30 to 70 Ibs. per diem for a full grown 

 ox. The organs of digestion may increase or decrease their capacity as the 

 occasion may demand. Without doubt, the best results are obtained by feed- 

 ing a uniform ration. The condition of digestion may constantly be ascer- 

 tained by the analysis of excrement. 



Diffusion. Modern beet-sugar factories extract the sugar from beet 

 slices by diffusion in an apparatus, called a battery, each compartment of which 

 is termed a diffusor; hot water circulates from one diffusor to the other, and 

 the sugar passes from the cells of the tissues into the circulating water by a 

 physical action known as osmatic diffusion. 



Dried cossettes. The pressed residuum cossettes may be submitted to 

 a special drying, the product obtained being known as dried cossettes. 



