2.07| 1.92| 1.99
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| 100.00| 100.00| 100.00| 100.00| 100.00| 100.00
[* Containing nitrogen] | 1.24| 1.35| 1.41| 1.50| 1.38| 1.33
-------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------

A great deal has been said and written in favor of malt as a feeding
stuff, but I greatly doubt its alleged decided superiority over barley;
and until the results of accurately conducted comparative experiments
made with those articles incontestably prove that superiority, I think
it is somewhat a waste of nutriment to convert barley into malt for
feeding purposes. The gentlemen who verbally, or in writing, refer
so favorably to malt, acknowledge, with one or two exceptions, that
their experience of the article is limited. Mr. John Hudson, of
Brandon, states that he made a comparative experiment, the results
of which proved the superiority of malt. But, in fact, the only
properly-conducted experiments to determine the relative values of malt
and barley were those made some years ago by Dr. Thompson, of Glasgow,
by the direction of the Government, and those recently performed by Mr.
Lawes, both producing results unfavorable to the malt. The issue of Dr.
Thompson's investigations proved that milch cows fed on barley yielded
more milk and butter than when supplied with an equal weight of malt.

I do not deny the probability that malt, owing to its agreeable flavor
and easy solubility, may be a somewhat better feeding stuff than barley;
and that, weight for weight, it may produce a somewhat greater increase
in the weight of the animals fed upon it: but although a pound-weight of
malt may be better than a pound-weight of barley, I am quite satisfied
that a pound's worth of barley will put up more flesh than a pound's
worth of malt. Barley-seeds consist of water, starch, nitrogenous
substances--such as gluten and albumen--fatty substances, and saline
matter. The amount of starch is considerable, being sometimes about
70 per cent. In the process of malting (which is simply the germination
of the seed under peculiar conditions), a portion of the starch is
converted into sugar and gum, the grain increases in size and becomes
friable when dried, and the internal structure of the seed is completely
broken up. During these changes a partial decomposition of the solid
matter of the seeds takes place, and a large