246 Mouhray on Poultry. 



estimation in which it is held by the British public; and would 

 seem to rende^- an ajiology for reprinting h verbatim., in the United 

 States, unnecessary. But a mere copy of the last English edition 

 would embrace much matter, which could scarcely interest or 

 amuse an American reader. A considerable part of the original 

 work consists of local, personal, and transient topics; — of tales and 

 anecdotes, the perusal of which would afford no profit, and not 

 much amusement to readers in quest of useful information. These 

 are omitted in the following work, and their place supplied by 

 articles, original, or selected from the most authentic sources ' In 

 treating of augmenting the quantity and quality of the food of ani- 

 mals, he remarks as follows:-— 



' The importance of cooking food for animals is not generally so 

 well appreciated as it ought to be; nor is the principal cause or 

 source of improvement, as well in quality as quantity of cooked 

 food over its raw materials, known to every economist. The re- 

 searches and deductions of philosophers and chemists, assure us 

 that water supplies /ooc? for animals as well as plants. But, in or- 

 der that water may yield its best and greatest effect as nutriment 

 either for man or beast, it is necessary to cook it, or increase its 

 nutritive powers, by the agency of heat; by which water, when 

 combined with certain substances of vegetable origin, is converted 

 into wholesome, palatable, and often solid food. 



' It is a fact, which will be acknowledged as soon as stated, that 

 a pound of Indian meal, of rice, or any other farinaceous substance, 

 when boiled, contains more nourishment than several pounds in a 

 raw state. Count Rumford has stated that " From the results of 

 actual experiment it appears that for each pound of Indian meal 

 employed in making a pudding, we may reckon three pounds nine 

 ounces oi the pudding.* And again, three pounds of Indian meal, 

 three quarters of a pound of molasses, and one ounce of salt (in 

 all three pounds thirteen ounces of solid food) having been mixed 

 with five pints of boiling water, and boiled six hours, produced a 

 pudding which weighed ten pounds and one ounce, f Thus we 

 gain from the raw material about three hundred per cent, in weight, 

 and, no doubt, the gain as respects the quantity of nutriment con- 

 tained in the pudding, over and above the component parts as they 

 existed before boiling, was still greater. The gain of weight in 

 rice, in consequence of boihng, is still more considerable than that 

 of Indian meal, and every one knows that a small quantity of oat- 

 meal, will produce a very great relative proportion of gruel. 



' I will give other examples, proving that water is not only capa- 



* Rumford's Essays, vol. i, p. 253, Boston e ]. 

 tRumford's Essays, vol. 1, p. 264, Boston ed. 



