Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-12-17
Why Feed Should Be Cooked.

THE introduction of the iron corn and
cob mills, which require no extensive
machinery to run them has brought
them within the reach of every farmer
and into very general use; and although
they only crush or but imperfectly grind
the corn, for certain class of stock
there is evidently great economy in their
use yet, if the same corn was ground to
the fineness of common meal, the advan-
tage derived from it, no doubt, would be
double that from the corn which is only
crushed, for by being minutely divided
it can be more readily and etfectually
acted upon by the digestive fluid of the
stomach, and a larger portion of it is
rendered available for nutrition. Even
when corn is ground into fine meal and
fed uncooked to healthy animals it is not
all digested, but a large portion of it
passes off and is lost.
BY the researches of Dutrochet, Du-
mas and more lately by Raspail, who has
devoted much time, aided by the best
microscopical instruments, to the dis
covery of the original nutrtive particles
in food and the changes they undergo in
the process of preparation for nutrition,
it has been found that the nutritive mat
ter in grain or roots is composed of, or
IdIuGT Is COHldlUcu
white globules, differing in size in the
different grains or roots. Thus in wheat
they are 81 900 parts of an inch; in the
potato double this size, while in buck
wheat they are only 10, 900 part of an
inch in diameter Pure flour or starch
would seem to be but mass of these
globules In their natural size. Raspail
ascertained that these minute globules
consist of an envelope and an inclosed
kernel, constituting the nutritive matter
These globules are insoluble or unaltera-
bic in cold water, but require heat OF
1872 degrees to expand the kernel and
burst the envelope, yet at this degree OF
heat the substance is not decomposed. 1t
is these coating envelopes that constitute
the starch of the laundry The investiga-
tions OF these philosophers seem to have
established the following facts as stated
by Raspail:
/. That the globules contain -four,
meal or starch, whether contained in
grain or roots, and are incapable of af
fording any nourishment as animal food
until they are broken.
2. That no mechanical method of
breaking or grinding is more than par
TALLY efficient.
3. That the most efficient modes of
breaking the globules are by heat, by
fermentation, or by the chemical agency
OF acids or alkalies.
A. That the dextrine the nutriment
part, which is the kernel, as it were, of
each globule, is alone soluble and there
fore alone nutritive.
8. That the envelope or shells of the
globules, when reduced to fragments by
mechanism or heat are insoluble, and
therefore not nutritive.
q. That though the fragments of these
shells are not nutritive, they are indis-
pensable to digestion, either from their
distending the stomach or bowels, or
from some other cause not understood,
it having been proved by experiment
that concentrated nourishment, such as
cane sugar, essence of beef, or ozma-
ZONE, cannot long sustain life without
some mixture of coarser and less nutri
tive food
z. That the economical preparation of
all food containing globules of iecula
consists in perfectly breaking the shells,
and rendering kernel or dextrine con-
tanned in them soluble and digestible,
while the fragments of the shells are at
the same time rendered more bulky, so
as the more readily to fill the stomach.
That great advantages are derived
from cooking meal for stock we think
these facts and hundreds Of experiments
that have been made clearly demonstrate
and the only question that presents it.
self for consideration is, whether the
saving in grain by cooking is equal to
the labor and expense of the operation
Two points must determine this ques-
ton: first, the market value of grain,
and second, the perfection of the appa-
ratus for cooking and feeding -Rurat
World.