70 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
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them. Plants have the power to build up albuminoids from the elements taken fror 
the soil and air, but it has not yet been found that any animal has this power, that i: 
the albuminoids of the animal structure must come as albuminoids from the vegetab) 
food eaten by the animal whose system has the power to modify the albuminoids, bt 
not create them. Let us get this fixed clearly in our minds. From the soil in whic 
there is hydrogen and oxygen in the form of water; nitrogen and sulphur each i 
combination witn some other element, and from the carbonic acid gas of the atmo: 
phere, the plant has the power of bringing together these four elements, or five, if w 
include the sulphur, and so uniting them that they form one compound. This tf 
plant can do, but not the animal, which to obtain them must find them alread 
formed in the vegetable food or in the flesh of some animal. 
The carbohydrates form the second great division in our food list. Under thi 
head comes starch, cellulose or woody fibre, cane sugar, grape sugar, milk sugar, etc 
Their chemical composition is much simpler than that of albuminoids, and they ai 
made up of only three elements, namely, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. As whe 
forming the albuminoids the plant has the power to take chemical compounds fror 
the air and earth, and separating out the elements just named, unite them to form tb 
carbohydrates. The carbohydrates form the bulk of our fodders, as we would natui 
ally suspect when we reflect that all woody fibre comes under this head, as well a 
starch and sugar. 
The last of the classes, the fats, will receive but little attention here. Certai 
oils and fatty substances occur in the stems and leaves of plants, but more especial] 
in the seeds, as in corn, flax seed, etc. These, too, are compounded of the three eh 
ments, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, as the carbohydrates, but with far less regularit 
of composition. In a paper like this, where only the main topics receive attentioi 
the facts must be passed over with as little notice as possible. With these two classe 
as with the albuminoids, the animal appropriating the chemical compounds alread 
formed by the plant, builds them into its body or breaks them down into simple 
ones, but it has no power to create them from the simple elements. 
Let us turn our attention next to the function or use of these classes of foo( 
The albuminoids are of the highest importance in the animal economy, as they go t 
form muscle, nerves, tendons—the working machinery of the body/ The carbohj 
drates and fats cannot do this, so that albuminoids are essential to the life of animal: 
In addition to the muscles, nerves and tendons of the body, the albuminoids in tb 
body split up, and a part forms fat ana a part uric acid, which leaves the body throug 
the kidneys. In breaking up in this way, heat results. In general, we may call tb 
albuminoids the muscle formers, since this is in main their first function. The cai 
bohydrates cannot make muscle, nor is it certain that from them fat can be formed 
but by their being burned up, the fat from other sources, which otherwise would b 
consumed, is saved. The fats taken into the body may form the fatty tissue of th 
animal; or, like the carbohydrates, may break up into 'carbonic acid gas and wate 
The carbohydrates and fats, then, may be styled the “fat formers ” and the “ fles 
formers.” Of the salts, such as phosphate of lime, sodium chloride or common sal 
which are as essential as any other food constituent, we need pay no attention in on 
early efforts to study the subject. All the ordinary feeding materials contain enoug 
of these, except common salt, to meet the wants of the animals, and, with this excel 
tion, we need make no provision for them by special attention. 
We must look upon the animal, then, as taking into its stomach a variety of con 
pounds which may be classed under the heads already named, and that these ui 
changed or but slightly altered enter the circulation, and are built up into the body c 
are broken down, in which process the phenomena of life appear. 
Having learned the functions of the albuminoids, carbohydrates and fats, we wi 
next see how they are disposed of in our common fodders. Chemical analysis show 
how many pounds of each of these exist in a given food, as for instance the chemis 
can tell exactly how many pounds of carbohydrates there are in a ton of wheat straw 
or how many pounds of albuminoids in a ton of oil meal. The chemist, however, i 
able to get a larger amount of albuminoids or carbohydrates out of a fodder than tb 
animal can obtain by digestion. Chemistry shows that corn, straw and wood are a 
mainly composed of carbohydrates, yet we reason at once that an ox would get moi 
of the carbohydrates out of a given w r eiglit of corn than from straw, while from woe 
fibre only animals of the strongest digestive powers, as the goat, could obtain som 
slight nourishment. We must distinguish between the total and the digestible cor 
stiiuents of each of our fodders Let us begin now a study of the table given on pag 
72, and see if it does not contain facts of interest. Taking the first fodder in the lis 
which is “ inferior German meadow hay,” we see that of 100 pounds, 14.2 pounds ai 
water. To find this a weighed quantity of the hay from the mow is placed in an ovei 
which is heated to a temperature of 212 degrees. After remaining for some time i 
the oven, it is again weighed, and the difference between the two weights is tf 
amount of water. Upon burning the hay the ash weighs five pounds. In the no 
column we find the amount of the albuminoids; then follows the fibre, carbohydrate 
