INORGANIC COMPOUNDS 353 



cud, and the food escapes that thorough chewing that is so essential 

 to the complete digestion of the carbohydrates. This is the reason 

 why it is advisable to feed chaffed hay or shredded corn stalks with 

 grain to ruminants. 



After mastication the crude fiber gives mass to the digesting sub- 

 stances in the stomach and bowels, rendering them porous and mak- 

 ing it easy for the digestive fluids to find their way to the valuable 

 food ingredients. After the digestive fluids have extracted all or 

 most of the nutritious portions of the feed the crude fiber contmues 

 to keep the waste material in the lower bowels loose and bulky. The 

 bowels are thus better able to grip and pass on the mass to final ex- 

 cretion. In this way crude fiber has a tendency to prevent impac- 

 tion or constipation. 



INORGANIC COMPOUNDS.— Ash. All feeds when burned 

 leave an ash. The ash is valuable as a food inasmuch as it furnishes 

 the materials that form the bones of the animal, especially a young 

 growing animal, and that form the minerals for the blood, tissues and 

 milk solids. Corn meal may contain as low as i per cent of ash while 

 corn fodder may run as high as 3 or 4 per cent in these materials. 

 These ash compounds have never been given sufficient consideration 

 from the standpoint of their value in animal growth. As we have 

 seen, the corn grain is noticeably lacking in mineral matter which 

 makes up almost three-fourths of the bones of animals. In practice 

 the hogs of Iowa and Illinois which have been fed an excess of corn 

 through their growing period show a small frame and under size, al- 

 though showing evidence of refinement and quality. The shoats of 

 western Nebraska are rugged and growthy, showing when young, scaic 

 and roughness of frame due to running on alfalfa pasture which lui- 

 nishes a large amount of mineral matter. 



As students of corn it should be observed that the ash is chiefly 

 found in the part of the plant which is usually lost on the farms in 

 the corn belt. In other words, the corn fodder, which is quite rich in 

 mineral matter, remains in the field and the grain whicn 10 so deficient 

 in inorganic elements is fed heavily. Corn is the one food which, while 

 so heavily grown and fed in the greatest live stock area of the United 

 States, is lacking in ash. 



Water. The corn stalk may be apparently very dry, but if some 

 loosely broken leaves are placed in a tumbler or drinking glass and 

 the glass inverted on a dinner plate and set in the sunlight, drops of 

 water will soon be seen to collect on the inner surface of the glass. 

 All grains and feeds contain water no matter how dry they may seem. 



