488 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



break or crack the grain." Raspail, a writer upon the 

 chemistry of foods, says : 



" Starch is not actually nutritive to man till it has been 

 boiled or cooked. The heat of the stomach is not sufficient 

 to burst all the grains of the feculent mass, which is sub- 

 jected to the rapid action of the organ ; and recent experi- 

 ments prove the advantage that results from boiling the 

 potatoes and grain which are given to graminivorous ani- 

 mals for food, for a large proportion, when given whole, in 

 the raw state, passes through the intestine perfectly unaf- 

 fected, as when swallowed." 



Every housewife is familar with the fact, that starch will 

 not dissolve in cold water. It follows, then, that those 

 grains containing the largest proportion of starch will be 

 most benefited by cooking, and these (corn, rye, oats, bar- 

 ley) are most used as fattening food for pigs. Corn, 

 especially, is considered the standard fattening food, and 

 that contains about 64 per cent, of starch ; rye, 54 per cent.; 

 barley, 47 per cent., and oats 40 per cent, of starch. When 

 corn -meal is well cooked, it is something more than doubled 

 in bulk the bursting of the grains of starch causes it to 

 swell and occupy twice its former space and some feeders 

 have considered it as valuable, bulk for bulk, as before 

 cooking ; or, in other words, that its value is doubled by 

 cooking. Hon. Geo. Geddes, of New York, a farmer of 

 long experience, says : 



" I find if I take ten bushels of meal and wet it in cold 

 water, and feed 25 hogs with it, they eat it well ; but if I 

 take the same quantity and cook it, it doubles the bulk, and 

 will take the same number of hogs twice as long to eat it 

 up ; and I think they fatten twice as fast, in the same length 

 of time. By cooking, you double the bulk and value of the 

 meal." 



We have one complete, comparative experiment of our own 

 to offer as illustrating this point. On the first of October, 



