Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-12-18
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well-knoTu writer Oh ayFicutufal
topics, Peter Collier, of the New York
Experiment Station. writes the Country
Gentleman AZ follows IN the value Of fatas
= food;
Ina recent issue of one of our dairy
pspers, under the heading of "The Differ
snce between Fats ard Foods" the editor
appears TO liscredit the food value Of fat,
because, as he SAYS, "a food 10 an article
that may not only be iigested but that may
he assimilssed, and that ''in this latter
process it ceases to be what it once was and
becomes part of the new organization,
heinz tissue; and that "anything that fails
to do this perfectly is not a perfect food"
think that he has lost sight of the full
function Of food in the body, and as II 10
obviously of the first importance that our
farmers should have as clear an idea -
possible concerning this matter, in order
that they may furnish to their animals q
ration most suitable for the several wants
and most economical to the farmer, think
the subject demands full discussion.
Now. food has several different functions
to perform In the animal economy, and We
NAV classify these functions as follows:
First, and perhaps the moot important, 10
the maintenance Of animal heat, and this
heat is derived largely il not entirely from
the oxidation of food constituents within
the body. Chemical snalysis has shown
that sugars, starch and such food constit-
uents, and sometimes fat, disappear within
the body and are mainly represented in the
two eliminated products of oxidation-caf-
bopic acid and water. Second, there 10 Z
large demand for food in order to provide
the muscular force exerted by an animal,
not only that manifested in outward and yis-
ible efforts, as of working horse or OK,
but that needed in the internal economy Of
living; and it is well known fact that an
Increase of effort of the animal calls for an
increase in the quantity of food needed to
provide the energy required in such in
creased effort. Third, IN addition to the
above demands upon the food supply. there
remains also the necessity of providing for
the waste and repair of the several parts Of
the body for the growth of the young ami
NAL and in the adult female the develop
ment of her young and the production Of
milk.
In brief the above represents the demands
made by the animal upon its food supply,
and it will Mt once be seen that with perhaps
the sole exception of milk "a provision Of
nature for the sole support of the young
mammal-to which perhaps the cereals and
grasses may be added there Is no such
thing as Il perfect food. Certainly starch.
sugar, fats, the various albuminoids, each Of
which is universally regarded As among the
most valuable of our food constituents, are
not perfect foods, since neither of them, nor
all Of them in fact, are able to supply all
the demands which the animal, either young
or adult, makes upon food.
1t is obvious that food must be capable
of digestion and absorption in order to be Of
value in nutrition, but it by no means 10
true that it is also necessary that it should
be assimilated, if it is meant that in this
latter process il must become part of the
new organization, ~ living tissue" since
there is not the least reason for believing
that large portion of the food ever be-
comes "iipiRg tissue its function being
| fully performed within the capillaries.
While in order TO enter the blood, digestion
must ensue and the food constituents be
rendered capable by the action of saliva,
the gastric and pancreatic juices and the
bile, of absorption, the food necessary to
the production of heat or muscular force in
ternal and external may fully accomplish
these functions within the blood vessels and
in manner which has been likened to the
production of energy by the combustion Of
coal beneath the boiler of locomotive.
The most eminent living Psychologist
perhaps, DR.. Michael Foster, Classics
! foods as follows:
/. Proteids, as fibrin of meat, casein Of
milk &c.
| 2. Fats all possessing a large quantity
of potential energy.
| 3. Carbohydrates or sugars and starches,
possessing weight for weight relatively less
potential energy than do fats, giving out
when completely oxidized less heat than do
| fats.
| 4. Saline or mineral bodies. and water.
| 1t will be seen therefore that fats, 30 far
from being no food, stand. according to
this eminent authority, rs second in the list
of food constituents in their relative impor-
lance, their relative heat-producing value
being at least ii times that Of the sugars
and starches.
Finally, it is interesting to observe. -
the results of four years experiment at
this station with several representatives OF
several different breeds of dairy cattle, fed
with foods of different kinds, that the fat
yielded in their milk sppears to bear no
sort of relation to either of the constituents
present in their foods other than fat, being
neither increased nor diminished by any in
crease or diminution in the quantity OF any
of the other food constituents, while the
total quantity of fat produced in their milk
agrees very closely with the quantity OF fat
shown by analysis to have been present in
the food they consumed.