324 Agricultural Chemistry — Sheep- Feeding and Manure. 



composition of the mangolds as produced ; for with the higher 

 manuring and higher per-centage of nitrogen we have a lower 

 amount of dry substance, and a higher amount of ash, conditions 

 which lead to the supposition that the plants were not so ripe 

 when drawn from the land as the others ; and it is not improbable 

 that much of the bad effect of the mangolds at the commencement 

 was, in fact, due to a deficient maturation, which both analysis 

 and experience would indicate was more perfect as the season 

 progressed. For our present purpose the mean composition of 

 the two specimens will be taken as sufficiently near the truth. 



The oil-cake here, as in former instances, is seen to contain a 

 considerably higher per-centage of nitrogen than any of the foods 

 tried by its side — indeed, weight for weight, it contains more than 

 three times as much of that element as either the barley or the 

 malt. The important fact is here seen also, that the malt-dust 

 contains about times as high a per-centage of nitrogen as the 

 screened malt; from which we learn, that although the quantity 

 of <c dust" bears but a small proportion to that of the malt, yet it 

 may on this account be of much importance that it should not be 

 separated from malt which is to be used as food. The "malt- 

 dust" is, moreover, richer than the malt, in mineral matter, to 

 a greater extent than in nitrogen. The malt is seen to be, 

 weight for weight, considerably richer than the barley in dry 

 organic substance, and rather so in mineral matter and in nitro- 

 gen ; the weight of the malt, however, being much less than that 

 of the barley which produced it, this superiority in composition is 

 owing to the loss of water only; and we see, accordingly, that both 

 mineral matter and nitrogen, though higher in the malt in the fresh 

 state than in the barley in the same, are in a lower per-centage 

 to the dry organic substance. 



We shall now give such a sketch of the malting-process as will 

 aid a conception of the losses to which the barley submitted to it 

 is subject. 



The malt used in the first series of experiments was made at 

 the premises of Mr. William Lattimore, of Wheathamstead, who 

 kindly observed and supplied an account of the weights and mea- 

 sures of the barley, and of the malt, and of the " dust" produced. 

 The process was, however, in this case conducted very late in the 

 malting season ; and as the sampling for analysis was not made at 

 the time of taking the weights, and as both malt and dust gained 

 moisture, and therefore weight, very considerably after leaving 

 the kiln-room, it was not thought that the results of further ex- 

 amination in the laboratory would be sufficiently trustworthy to 

 repay the expenditure of labour. 



In order to trace with more certainty some of the changes 

 which take place during the process, permission was asked and 



