48 The Feeding of Animals 



the original barley grains. Much the same thing oc- 

 curs in the manufacture of starch and glucose from 

 the maize kernel, as in brewing, for the ground grains 

 are either treated with water or with dilute acid. As 

 the salts in the maize kernel are largely those soluble 

 in water, the gluten meals and feeds, which are the 

 residues, have a very small proportion of ash, not over 

 half that in the original kernel. Analyses show that 

 the potash is practically all extracted, and that the 

 phosphoric acid is materially diminished. 



The mineral compounds of animal bodies. The min- 

 eral compounds of animals are nearly similar in kind to 

 those of plants, but are very different in relative pro- 

 portions. This is made plain by a comparison of the 

 figures given below: 



Ash in plants and animals (per cent) 



Pot- Mag- Phos. Sul. Silicic Chlor- 



Potash is much less prominent in the composition 

 of the animal than is the case with plants, and phos- 

 phoric acid and lime are much more so. In general, 

 more than 80 per cent of the ash of the animal body 

 consists of phosphoric acid and lime in combina- 

 tion as calcium phosphate, whereas these two com- 

 pounds constitute less than one-fifth of the ash of 



