FOOD 159 



affecting the skin the result of digestive trouble ; for 

 example, the irritation and often eruption shown by horses 

 too highly fed ; the sudden swellings of nettle rash, and in 

 India the acute eczema affecting horses, probably due both 

 to the highly nitrogenous food they receive, but also to 

 grass which they get in a wet condition at certain times of 

 the year. 



A food may prove indigestible owing to its method of 

 preparation ; the pea and bean class require crushing, 

 some even need boiling or soaking before they can be dealt 

 with. Parched barley is in some parts of the world the 

 only method by which the grain is employed, as it is found 

 in this condition to be better digested, and not pass whole 

 through the animal. 



The continual use of ' grains ' for dairy stock is said to 

 ruin the system, and that two years of such feeding is 

 sufficient to destroy the health of any cow. Presumably 

 this condition is brought about through the digestive 

 system, probably as the result of the long-continued use 

 of an acid food. 



Foods which have been frozen, such as roots and 

 potatoes, are harmful to stock. We do not know the 

 chemical changes which have occurred as the result of 

 frost, but the effect is to render them highly indigestible or 

 even poisonous. 



We have later on drawn attention to the influence of 

 certain foods, such as cabbage, on the taste imparted to 

 milk, and the 'ropy' condition which some believe milk 

 suffers from as the result of the use of tares as food. These 

 cannot, it is true, be regarded in the light of disease, but 

 they are conditions imparted by food, and may be con- 

 veniently noted here. 



Conditions of Quality. 



The quality of a food is affected by its mode of growth, 

 care in saving and preservation, its cleanliness, and the 

 inroads of animal and vegetable parasites. 



If the land on which a crop is grown be poor in quality 



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