Mr. D. F. Van Liew, of Dayton, Ohio, placed at the disposal of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture one of " Scarlet's Eagle Corn and Cob Mills," to be awarded at the December meeting of the Board for the best essay on the advantages of feeding corn and cob meal together for fattening cattle and hogs, as well as for feeding horses, sheep, etc. The price of the mill is fifty dollars, and was on exhibition at the State Fair at Dayton.

A demonstration of the "advantages" and "economy" which form the subjects of the foregoing propositions, implies a perfect knowledge-1st. Of the physical and chemical constitution of the material to be assimilated; 2d. Of the agents by which this is effected.

"1st. Physical and chemical construction of corn."

When an ear of ripe corn is separated from its stalk, it presents a striking evidence of the care with which God guards the preservation of the most precious races. All the external surface of the "grain" is coated with a varnish of flint, and a layer of resin; the former is fitted to resist the attack of insects, the latter renders it impervious to air or water; neither can it be decomposed by concentrated hydro-chloric, acetic, or even sulphuric acids. The only vulnerable point, the "hilum," through which the grain was connected with the upper stamina, to receive fecundation, and with the stem to obtain food, is sunk into a warm socket, where the precious embryo may sleep until called into life and reproduction.

The "cob" presents, at its root, an outwork of flinty defence, and within its cells, stores of orgatic substances for the continuing life of the grain; so that, the older the cob, the less nutritious it will be; whereas, green cobs contain a larger quantity of starch and other substances tending to organize.

Chemically considered, the "cob" contains, when unripe, all the elements of the grain in a transient form; after maturation, gluten has disappeared; water, oil, fecula, sugar and resin diminish with age, by the process of "endosmosis," which is exercised in favor of the grain; then woody fibre and salts predominate.

The "grain" of two different species of corn, analyzed by Gorham and Bixio, was found to contain :

A. The "fecula" or starch, as seen by the naked eye, is a well known white powder; under the microscope, each grain is seen to be a bladder, which is full of liquid. Cold water, alchohol, ether, sulphuric and nitric acids (without water) are incapable of dissolving fecula. Soda, potash, lime and heat produced by boiling water, fermentation, or a mixture of water with concentrated acids, cause the grains of fecula to expand, burst and discharge their liquid. This liquid is a gum which, in contact with an acid, becomes a nutritive sugar, named "Dextrine." An unbroken grain of fecula is not food; it passes off unaltered. Properly speaking, fecula, and even dextrine, taken singly, are not nutritive; but they become alimentary, when they are united to "Gluten."

B. "Gluten" is the cellular tissue of the perisperm of the grain, which contains the fecula. It is soluble in acids and alkalies; it is coagulated by the action of either boiling water or alchohol; but acids and ammonia render it soluble in water and alchohol.

Gluten is the agent of fermentation; when moist and exposed to the air, it putrefies; if combined with sugar it generates alchohol, on which it reacts and produces acetic acid; there is a complete analogy between gluten in vegetables and albumen in animals; gluten alone is not food.

C. "Woody fibre." This element constitutes the scales (*) and part of the embryo, the pericarp, and the insoluble envelope or membrane of the fecula; it has no nutritive power; its action is to promote digestion, by dividing the mass and exposing it to the fermentative agents.

D. "Gum" is the organic matter, which, in a pure state, becomes sugar; it is associated with various bases, and plays a great part in the formation of woody Wherever wood is about to be formed, gum fills the organized cells of the plant; when wood is completely formed, the acids are capable of restoring the

textures.

* Around the embryo, at the base of the grain, two scales are found, which are thick before fecundation and become thin after maturity; the stamins are inserted into their interstices. The embryo, as seen under the microscope, presents a complete miniature plant; the cotyledons, plu mula, radicular cone, and even the ear wrapped in the husk and the stamins appear to be already formed.

primitive form of gum to the woody matter. In the act of nutrition gum must be considered as imperfect sugar, combined with bases and salts.

E. 66 Sugar" is a well known substance, extremely distributed in nature; like gum and fecula, it is not food of itself; but it becomes nutritive when united to gluten, or when diluted with water, in contact with air and fermented, it is changed into alcohol or wine; wine is food.

F. "Resin" is a modification of volatile oils; it is brittle, heavier than water, generally translucent and of a yellowish color; it is deposited in the grain by the descending sap, apparently after fecundation; its chief function is to exclude air and water from the gluten; it is not food; but being soluble in alcohol, potash and soda, it largely contributes to the formation of the adipose tissue or fat, hair, hoofs and horns.

"Salts." These are mainly the phosphate and sulphate of lime, on which the formation and renovation of the bones depend.

H. "Water." All the cares of the husbandman must tend to exclude and evaporate the same, because its presence invites fermentation and untimely vegetation, which are both destructive of starch and gluten.

2d. Agents of absorption; J.-Teeth. K.-Digestive organs.

J. "Teeth." The ox has 32 teeth; 8 incisors and 24 molars. The upper jaw is furnished with a thick pad, in place of incisors, which are all set in the under jaw. The incisors are sharp, short and weak.

During the first year, the molar teeth number 12 only; the second year 16; the third 20; and the fourth 24. The molars of the first year are, like the incisors, shed and replaced by a new growth.

Thus, the dental system of the ox is imperfect during the period of growth; and, often before it reaches perfection, the animal is sent to the shambles.

The "hog" is better provided with teeth; they number 46, viz: 12 incisors, 4 canine, and 28 molars; the upper incisors are not sharp like the others, they are cylindrical, long, truncated, so as to meet obliquely and at right angles with the inferior incisors. The four canine teeth belong properly to the boar; castration prevents their growth; sows have none.

K. "DIGESTIVE ORGANS."-The Ox is provided with four stomachs, the first and largest of which, the paunch, receives the food imperfectly masticated; some little time after the repast, the cud is brought forth into the cavity of the mouth to be ruminated and thrown into the other organs, to undergo the process of gradual digestion. The spleen, liver, and gall-bladder, are large. The bowels, long, large and complicated, are well adapted to the elaboration of tenacious, bulky provender.

The stomach of the hog is very capacious; part of it is lined with a wrinkled

membrane, the remainder is velvet like. The intestines of the hog are very large; the colon describes several circumvolutions before reaching the rectum. The liver has four equal lobes and a long gall-bladder. The spleen is very long, and presents three longitudinal surfaces. From this we may infer that the hog was constituted for gluttony.

Having laid down the premises, we proceed to argument.

CORN FED WHOLE.

When an ox receives an ear of corn, it seizes, shells and swallows the grain almost without masticating it, because the appetite and the hard labor of shelling deceive the animal, with the sensation of having masticated it enough; inasmuch as the grain is in a state of great division in comparison with the capacity of the throat. Long hay or grass, rolled up and swallowed in a bunch, suggests the necessity of rumination; minute, slippery grains do not, and many of them enter into the digestive organs whole, and untouched by the teeth. Of course the glandular and stomachic secretions are without effect on the flinty resin which covers the grain; the fecula does not discharge its liquid, because neither alkalis nor sufficient heat can reach the globules; the gluten, deprived of air and water, cannot ferment; therefore, digestion produces no sugar, alcohol, albumen nor food; and the whole grain is ejected as it was introduced, after having uselessly taxed the digestive organs.

It is vain to argue that there is no loss where hogs or poultry pick up the grain from the excrements. Swine also drop their food, (we shall prove it hereafter), and poultry may as well find something else, at or during the same time.

CORN AND COB MEAL FED TOGETHER.

This method of feeding is evidently rational; the teeth of the mill perform the double operation of shelling and mastication, to the relief of the animal which is allowed quietly to indulge in its natural appetite; dry, coarse fragments of cob invite the organs to healthful, moderate chewing and saturation with saliva; the grain, already mashed and angular, takes its share of trituration; and the mass is then swallowed in the shape of conglomerate pellets, which will solicit after chewing.

In the process of digestion, the flinty resin no longer protects the nutritive element; favored by division and by the interference of the cob, the fecula coming in contact with alkalis, and being affected by the heat of fermentation, expands, bursts, and emits its liquid, which is soon changed into dextrine and alcohol The gluten readily ferments, under the influence of air, heat and water; its action upon fecula and the union of the two elements produces the perfect food.

Following up the advantages of the comminution of the parts, the other elements come into play; woody fibres keep up division and absorb gas; gum, sugar and resin supply the glands, liver and spleen with the material of their secretions; salts co-operate in the chemical action and serve to strengthen the bones.

FATTENING CATTLE AND HOGS.

The fattening qualities of corn and cob together, consist in the mechanical assistance of the cob, which favors proper division and digestion, also in the contingent, nutritive matter which the cob affords; but the fattening element proper is the fecula or rather the carbon it contains; this is evinced by the acknowledged fattening power of charcoal, and also by the following analysis which shows how much carbon the formation of lard requires, and how much carbon fecula can supply.

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS, BY PROUT & GAY LUSSAC.

The fattening qualities of corn and cob may be much increased by allowing the mass to ferment twenty-four hours before feeding, then no grain of fecula will escape digestion; otherwise the heat of the stomach and even of the internal fermentation is not sufficent to burst all the coherent globules, on account of the rapid action of the organs of digestion.

Indeed the hog, with highly dilatable, well armed and powerful jaws, masticates well enough, so as to require no rumination; its digestive organs are of such power, as to render its gluttenous appetite insatiable, however, experiments with the tincture of iodine show that the hog's excrements do contain perfect fecula; the blue color is more intense at the fattening period when corn is liber. ally fed.

Reason, public interest and humanity require that animals may no longer be permitted to squander the precious staff of life, which many a man vainly craves to nourish his children. No man has a right to burn his house; why should not the law forbid the wilful wasting of bread?

By all means the provender for fattening stock should be well ground; it must also be either boiled or fermented in order to become thoroughly assimilable; it is a wonder that this principle of economy should be overlooked by any persɔn in this enlightened, industrious community.