BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 145 
fodder rations have almost everywhere been remarkably poor in 
nitrogenous constituents, up to a comparatively recent period, when 
some efforts have been made to supply the deficiency. 
The reason of this general lack of nitrogen is not far to seek. It 
depends doubtless upon the fact that Indian corn, which lies at the 
very foundation of American agriculture, is a plant so nearly fitted to 
serve the purpose of a complete mixture of foods, and is so easily 
grown withal, that our farmers have had comparatively little incentive 
to cultivate any other crops for foddering purposes beside maize and 
grass. But it would not be difficult to show that maize has been 
somewhat overrated by our people, or rather that it has not received 
quite fair treatment at their hands. 
For swine of a certain age and weight, that is to say, for swine that 
have attained a considerable development of frame, or growth, as the 
term is, it would appear that maize fed out by itself may play the part of 
a well-nigh perfect food. There are experiments upon record, at all 
events, which show that swine of improved breeds, that are rather more 
than six months old, and are already fairly advanced in the process of 
fattening, prosper exceedingly upon rations which contain albuminoids, 
carbohydrates, and fat, in proportions similar to those in which these 
constituents occur naturally in maize. But it is probable that the 
period during which maize would be the best possible food, even for 
swine, is not very long, since the requirements of these animals differ 
continually as they become larger and fatter. It is not impossible, 
indeed, that for very fat hogs a food even more highly carbohydrated 
than maize would be preferable to it. For poultry, also, at a certain 
stage of the fattening, maize alone may perhaps be a practically per- 
fect food ; but so strong a remark as this could hardly be applied in 
respect to any other animals beside poultry and swine, in spite of the 
excellence of maize when used for purposes of fattening, as an addition 
to the food of all kinds of cattle. Moreover it is a well-established 
fact that for young growing swine a more highly nitrogenized food than 
maize is greatly to be preferred. Many an American farmer has 
expressed this truth in other language by complaining that the first 
100 pounds of corn-fed pork cost more than the second. It is worth 
noting, in passing, that, although this practical remark must neces- 
sarily be true of maize, it need not be true with respect to other kinds 
of foods. Nitrogenous foods may be had for the growing almost 
VOL. Il. 10 
