341 
CAllOB BEAN, OR LOCUST. 
did eat.” It is called by the Arabs “Kharood.” In 
Spain it is known by the name of “The Algaroba Bean, 3 ’ 
where it is generally used as food for horses, and during 
the Peninsular war it formed the principal food of the 
horses of our cavalry. Its seeds are about the weight of 
a carat, and have been thought to have been the origin of 
the ancient money weight. Strange it is that a plant pos¬ 
sessing the nutritive properties of the locust bean should 
have remained for 2000 years before coming into general 
use ! It is one of the many instances which prove how slow 
is the march of agricultural improvement when unaided by 
the light of science. 
We do not know to whom the credit is due for having been 
the first to introduce the carob bean to the notice of the British 
agriculturist, but, be he whom he may, he has done much to 
promote the science of cattle-feeding, by the introduction of 
a plant possessing fattening properties greater than any 
other species of the Legutninosae, and which only requires 
to be skilfully prepared and mixed with other compounds 
to supersede oil-cake altogether, by producing a larger quan¬ 
tity of meat at a smaller cost. 
Of its fattening properties there can be no doubt, seeing 
that in fat-forming constituents it is richer than any other 
known plant. As will be seen from the following analysis 
by Professor Anderson, in the f Transactions of the Highland 
Agricultural Society,’ 1855, the carob (locust) bean, 100 
parts, contains— 
Water 
Albuminous compounds 
Sugar 
Gum and starch 
Woody fibre . 
Oil . 
Ash . 
Seeds 
12-57 
311 
49-68 
12-83 
7-00 
0-41 
2-80 
11-16 
100-90 
Here, then, is a substance containing no less than 65-62 
per cent, of fat- and flesh-forming properties, to say nothing 
of its seeds. And upon these I have made one or two expe¬ 
riments,' in order to ascertain whether they possess any 
feeding value. I find on incineration they leave just 11 per 
cent, ash, 7 per cent, of which is soluble, giving *82 of phos¬ 
phoric acid and P15 of nitrogen. Though extremely hard in 
themselves, they become soft by boiling, and are nearly 
altogether soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, yielding gum, 
sugar, and legume; the only waste, 4 per cent., in the husk, 
