Starch and Fibre as Food for Man and Cattle. 43 
may be made with reference to malt as to barley, that, in a re- 
munerative point of view, 9 lbs. a day may be considered a larger 
proportion of malt to supply a cow. It is highly probable, in- 
deed, that a smaller quantity will be found fully as efficient. 
USE OF THE STARCH AND FIBRE AS FOOD FOR MAN 
AND CATTLE. 
The former of these ingredients is frequently represented as the 
means of keeping up respiration, and, through it, the heat of the 
animal body. Every one who, with the necessary knowledge, 
has the power of thinking and reflecting, has a right to judge for 
himself, and I will therefore say nothing against his theory — not 
even referring to the complexity of the animal functions, which 
render it improbable that such a direct purpose should be served 
by the starch, on account merely of its consisting of carbon and 
the elements of water. It is, at the same time, very difficult for 
any one closely to investigate this matter. Certain it is, how- 
ever, that starch serves a very important purpose in the animal 
economy. Its easy transformation into gum and sugar — the solu- 
bility of the latter — the liability of the sugar to undergo fermen- 
tation, and thus partly to be converted into gaseous products, and 
its fitness for combining with several animal substances even 
within the body — the formation of gelatine sugar, which contains 
nitrogen, and thus seem to form a natural transition to the nitro- 
genous or protein compounds; — all this tends to show the very 
great importance of starch as a feeding substance. 
As regards the potato fibre, this is almost always thrown away 
or neglected as refuse, after the starch has been extracted from it. 
From what I have stated before as to the average quantity of por- 
tein compounds which it contains, it will be seen at once how er- 
roneous and disadvantageous such a neglect is. Every 100 lbs. 
of dry potato fibre contains on an average 4 lbs. of protein com- 
pounds, besides a quantity of inoragnic constituents, and is there- 
fore, in this respect, equal to about 50 lbs. of dried potatoes. It 
would only be required to mix this firbe with some other esculent 
of a more palatable nature, to render it valuable as an article of 
food. — Jour. As:. 
Crops in Texas. — The New Orleans Evening Mercury, learns 
from a gentleman from Texas, that the amount of the cotton crop 
of Texas, the last year, according to the estimates of the best 
judges, will not fall short of 90,000 or a 100,000 bales. 
