REV. M. C. H. BIRD ON ACORNS. 
337 
selected by himself ran clean away (in the first two years’ 
growth) from finer acorns picked up haphazard from trees of 
ordinary growth and character. There is also the danger in 
planting the largest possible acorns that such will contain 
two or more embryos, although size is no certain sign of this. 
I have now a pailful of large acorns, from many of which two 
radicles are pushing, but the most careful external examination 
previous to germination could not possibly have detected any 
signs of such duplicity — nor are triplet acorns always con- 
spicuously larger than their fellows. 
In consequence of the partial failure of the past season’s 
root crop and the simultaneous rise in price of artificial 
feeding stuffs, it is not surprising that an attempt should 
have been made to utilise the abundancy of acorns by drying 
and grinding them into meal for cattle. Messrs. Pallet & Co., 
of North Walsham, were ingeniously successful in this respect, 
and disposed of large quantities — demand, I heard, exceeded 
supply. The meal had an agreeable odour; it was Pallet - able 
in fact, by name and nature, and I saw that bullocks not only 
consumed it with avidity, but also did well upon it in mixture 
with other rations.* A good deal of correspondence occurred 
in the daily and weekly papers upon the feeding value of 
such a preparation. Mr. John Hughes, writing in the 
“Field” of Nov. 11th ult., gave the following analysis of 
acorns cut up into four quarters in their husks, dried, and 
slowly baked at a temperature of 212° Fahr. The percentage 
of water in the analysis being moisture absorbed from the air 
after the artificial drying 
Water (lost at 212° Fahr.) - 6‘40 
Oil and Fat - - 4’30 
Albumenoids - - 6\31 
Sugar Glucose and Mucilage - 10 60 
Starch and Digestible Fibre - 61 '02 
Indigestible Fibre - - 8'17 
Mineral Matter (Ash) - 3 20 
* Messrs. Pallett & Co. secured some 3000 bushels, heaped measure, 
about 56 lbs. average, at 8d. per bushel, from a radius of 4 miles. 
