434 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXIV, No. 5 
the third or mature growth cycle. In following up this work, Mattill (i) 
has recently reported that dilution of whole milk powder with lard, 
starch, and salts in varying proportions did not prevent failure of adol¬ 
escent growth and reproductive ability in female rats. If, however, a 
small amount of yeast was added to the milk rations the females cast 
litters regularly and repeatedly, but the young soon died. 
1^, Since the completion of our experiments, a paper by Sherman, Rouse, 
Allen, and Woods (4) has appeared. Using the rat as the experimental 
animal, they secured practically the normal rate of growth for both sexes 
on a mixture of equal weights of bread and milk in which white bread 
furnished four-fifths and milk only one-fifth of the total calories (or a 
corresponding mixture of dry bread or flour and whole milk powder), 
butfreproduction failed on this simple diet. If ground whole wheat 
instead of white bread or patent flour furnished four-fifths of the calories 
in the above ration, young were successfully suckled, though at a consider¬ 
able loss of weight on the part of the mother, grew to maturity at some¬ 
what less than the average rate, and in several cases have produced and 
successfully suckled young of the third generation. When the proportion 
of 'milk in the diet constituted about two-fifths of the total calories of 
Fig. I. —^Velvet bean, 6o per cent; dextrin, 40 per cent. At point a a liberal supply of whole m il k was 
added to the ration. Dotted lines represent normal curves of growth. Y—young. 
the food mixture, the rest of which was ground whole wheat, the young 
were suckled without undue loss of the mother’s weight, and these young 
have grown normally, as have also the young of the third generation. 
The inference to be drawn from their experiments is that wheat contains 
some substance or substances deficient in milk which are necessary for 
reproduction. 
In the authors’ experiments to determine the supplementary value 
of hulls (by which is meant the tough outer seed coat) to the seed, these 
hulls were dried and incorporated into the seed portion of the rations 
in the same amount as they form a natural part of the seed. The ground 
seed (hulls excluded) was autoclaved before feeding, but the le^ and 
hulls were added to the diets in their natural state. 
ExpnRiMiSNT I, Lot L.—(Charted in fig. i.) This ration was started 
wdth 60 per cent cooked velvet bean seed (hulled) and 40 per cent dextrin. 
During the first six weeks of experimentation, the animals were all in a 
perfect maintenance condition, after which period they began to show 
characteristic signs of malnutrition, as evidenced by the roughness of 
their coat, lack of energy, loss of hair, etc. At point a a liberal supply 
of whole milk was added to the ration. From that period a little better 
than normal growth was obtained. Rat 200 gave birth to eight young 
