NUTRITIVE VAEUE OF THE GEORGIA VEEVET BEAN 
(STIZIEOBIUM DEERINGIANUM)* 
By J. W. Read, Head of Department of Agricultural Chemistry, and B ARNETT SuRE» 
Associate Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, Arkansas Agricultural College 
This paper is the third (d,5)* of a series of investigations covering the 
nutritive value of the Georgia velvet bean as originally planned and out¬ 
lined by the senior author. It discusses the supplementary relationship 
of whole and skimmed milk to the hulled seed and the whole plant, and 
of the leaf and the hulls to the seed. Subsequent papers will deal with 
the biological analysis of velvet bean meal (grouind pods and beans), the 
dietary deficiencies of some practical rations including the velvet bean as 
a certain portion of the diet, and the biological evaluation of the whole 
plant. These investigations are in progress. 
In the authors' first paper (6) it was shown that the seed of the Georgia 
velvet bean, unlike most seeds so far studied, has a great abundance of 
vitamine A, but is deficient in salts, in quality of protein, and in vita- 
mine B; that the raw mature seed is toxic to rats, and that the auto¬ 
claved seed, when it is the sole source of food, is inadequate even for 
maintenance. It was also shown that a ration composed of 6o per cent 
cooked seed (tough seed coats excluded) and 40 per cent dextrin served 
for maintenance for eight weeks. During the first six weeks all of the 
animals were apparentiy in an excellent state of nutrition, but imme¬ 
diately following this period their coats became rough, with some loss of 
hair. It was evident that a dangerous point in the mmntenance curve 
• had been reached and the ration was changed by the addition of a liberal 
supply of whole milk. On the modified ration all of the animals made 
even better than normal growth and three generations were reared suc¬ 
cessfully. Since the authors' previous work indicated that the seed is 
rich in the A vitamine, experiments emplo)dng skimnied milk instead of 
whole milk and replacing dextrin by starch were also introduced. 
Recently Mattill and Conklin published a paper { 2 ) which showed that 
milk, even when given in the dried form to furnish enough of the solids 
and fortified with iron citrate, permits no rearing of the young, although 
it does promote considerable growth. On a ration composed of 99 parts 
dried milk and i part yeast they secured normal growth and partially 
successful reproduction. For this reason, these authors suggest the 
possibility of yeast supplying something unique in the ration. On the 
basis of the results secured on their various ^k diet, they also express 
the opinion that milk may be both quantitativdy and qualitatively 
inadequate for adolescent growth and reproduction, especially in the 
female, and that it may even contain substances inhibitory to growth in 
' Accepted for publication Auir. 21. 1923. Published by courtesy of the American Chemical Society; 
paper read at New York meeting, September, 1921. 
• Reference is made made by number (italic) to “ Literature dted,” p. 440. 
Vol. XXIV, No. 5 
May 5, X923 
Key No. Ark.-3 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
dx 
(433) 
