Chapter XXV: Section VIII: Condimental Food

Although every farmer may not have used, there are few who have not heard of "Thorley's Condimental Food for Cattle." This nostrum is a compound of some of the ordinary foods with certain well-known aromatic and carminative substances. It possesses a very agreeable flavor, and it is therefore much relished by horses, and indeed by every kind of stock. The price of this compound was at first so much as L60 per ton; but owing to competition, and perhaps to the attacks made upon the enormously high price of this article, it is now to be obtained at prices varying from L12 to L24 per ton.

The inventor of condimental food, and the numerous fabricators of that compound, claim for it merits of no ordinary nature. Its use, they assert, not only maintains the animals fed upon it in excellent health, but it also exercises so remarkable an action upon the adipose tissues that fat accumulates to an immense extent. Moreover, it is said that an animal supplied with a very moderate daily modicum of this wonderful compound, will consume less of its ordinary food, though rapidly becoming fat.

Now, if these assertions were perfectly, or even approximatively, true, Mr. Thorley would be well deserving of a niche in the temple of fame, and stock-feeders would ever regard him as a benefactor to his own and the bovine species; but I fear that Mr. Thorley's imagination outstripped his reason when he described in such glowing terms the wonderful virtues of his tonic food.

Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamstead, than whom there is no more accurate experimenter in agricultural practice, states that he made many careful trials with Thorley's food, and that he never found it to exercise the slightest influence upon the nutrition of the animals fed upon it. In his report upon this subject, Mr. Lawes, after describing the experiments which he made, sums up as follows:--

There is nothing therefore in the above results to recommend the
use of Thorley's condiment with inferior fattening food, to those
who feed pigs for profit. In fact, the following balance-sheet of
the experiment shows that, in fattening for twelve weeks, there
was a balance of L1 10s. 11d. in favor of the lot fed without
Thorley's food, notwithstanding that one of the pigs in that lot
did badly throughout the experiment, as above stated.

LOT 1.--WITH BARLEY-MEAL AND BRAN.

L s. d.

4 pigs bought in at 41s. 6d. each 8 6 0
1,860-3/4 lbs. barley, at 37s. 6d. per
quarter of 416 lbs., including grinding 8 7 8-3/4
1,024-3/4 lbs. bran at 5s. 6d. per cwt. 2 10 3-3/4
------------
19 4 0-1/2
88 stone 5 lbs. of pork sold at 4s. 4d.
per stone, sinking the offal 19 4 0-1/2

LOT 2.--WITH BARLEY-MEAL, BRAN, AND THORLEY'S FOOD.

L s. d.

4 pigs bought in at 41s. 6d. each 8 6 0
1,862-3/4 lbs. barley, at 37s. 6d. per
quarter of 416 lbs., including grinding 8 7 10-1/4
1,020-3/4 lbs. bran at 5s. 6d. per cwt. 2 10 1-1/2
105 lbs. Thorley's food at 40s. per cwt. 1 17 6
------------
21 1 5-3/4
90 stone 1 lb. pork sold at 4s. 4d.
per stone, sinking the offal 19 10 6-1/2
------------
1 10 11-1/4

The results of these experiments with pigs, in which Thorley's condiment was used with inferior fattening food, may be summed up as follows:--

1. The addition of Thorley's condimental food increased the
amount of food consumed by a given weight of animal within
a given time.

2. When Thorley's condiment was given it required more food
to produce a given amount of increase in live-weight.

3. In fattening for twelve weeks there was a difference of
L1 10s. 11d. on the lot of 4 pigs in favor of barley-meal
and bran alone, over barley-meal, bran, and Thorley's food
in addition.

At a meeting of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, held some time ago, the subject of the nutrimental value of condimental cattle food was discussed. As there is scarcely any kind of quackery, from spirit manifestations to Holloway's pills, that has not got its believers, there were, as might have been anticipated, some voices raised at this meeting in favor of Thorley's food; but the _sense_ of the meeting was decidedly against it. Professor Simonds pronounced it to be worthless.

Although the greater number of equine proprietors and feeders of stock are too sensible to throw their money away in the purchase of those costly foods, still there are by no means an insignificant number who employ it, under the idea that it preserves the health of the animals; these stuffs are also highly appreciated by many grooms and herds. Now, for the information of all believers, I may state that there is no mystery whatever in the nature of condimental cattle foods. They consist in substance of such matters as linseed-cake, Indian corn, rice, bean-meal, locust-beans, and malt-combings. These substances are flavored by the addition of turmeric-root, ginger, coriander-seed, carraway-seed, fenugreek-seed, aniseed, liquorice, and similar substances. In addition to the nutritive and flavorous articles employed in the manufacture of these foods, purely medicinal substances are also made use of with the idea that they would prove useful in maintaining the health and stimulating the appetite of the animals. These medicinal ingredients constitute but a small proportion of the compound, although they add considerably to the cost of manufacture. The following is a formula for a condimental food, which in every respect will be found fully equal, if not superior, to the ordinary high-priced articles.

cwt. qrs. lbs.

Linseed-meal, or cake 7 0 0
Locust beans (ground) 8 0 0
Indian corn 4 1 0
Powdered turmeric 0 1 4
Ginger 0 0 3
Fenugreek-seed 0 0 2
Gentian 0 0 10
Cream of tartar 0 0 2
Sulphur 0 0 20
Common salt 0 0 10
Coriander-seed 0 0 5
-----------------
One ton.

A ton of condimental food manufactured according to this formula will cost only about the same amount as an equal weight of linseed, and will produce an effect fully equal to that of the food which at one time was sold at L60 per ton.

Whatever may be the medicinal virtues of these foods, or however appropriate the term "condimental" which has been applied to them, it is quite certain that their whilom designation "concentrated" was a misnomer. Their composition shows that they possess a degree of nutritive power considerably below that of linseed-cake, and but little, if at all, superior to that of Indian corn.

The following analytical statement, which I published some years ago, will give an insight into the nature of these articles:--

ANALYSES OF CONDIMENTAL FOOD.

Thorley's. Bradley's.

Water 12.00 12.09
Nitrogenous, or flesh-forming principles 14.92 10.36
Oil 6.08 5.80
Gum, sugar, mucilage, &c. 56.86 60.21
Woody fibre 5.46 5.32
Mineral matter (ash) 4.68 6.22
------ ------
100.00 100.00

As a ton of linseed-cake contains a greater amount of nutriment than an equal quantity of condimental food, the latter should be clearly proved to possess very valuable specific virtues, in order to induce the feeder to use it extensively. Cattle and horses out of condition may be benefited by its carminative and tonic properties; but if they are, it surely must be a bad practice to feed healthy animals upon a substance which is a remedy in disease. It is asserted, and probably with some degree of truth, that when dainty, over-fed stock loathe their food, they are induced to eat greedily by mixing the "condimental" with their ordinary food. If such really be the case, let the feeder compound the article himself, and effect thereby a saving of perhaps 50 or 80 per cent. in the cost of it. A good condimental food, rich in actual nutriment, and pleasantly flavored, is no doubt a compound which might be used with advantage; but it should be sold at a moderate and fair price.

* * * * *

[Footnote 26: See Transactions of Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for 1852.]

[Footnote 27: Zig-zag clover, or Marl grass? Cowgrass is _Trifolium pratense perenne_.]

[Footnote 28: This gentleman has invented an exceedingly simple but effective furze-bruiser, which I hope soon to see in general use.]

[Footnote 29: H. Le Docte, in _Journal de la Societe Centrale d'Agriculture de Belgique_.]

[Footnote 30: Cellulose is the term applied to the chemical substance which forms woody fibre. The latter is made up of very minute spindle-shaped tubes. In young and succulent plants these tubes are often lined with layers of soft cellulose. In many plants--such as trees--in a certain stage of development, the substance lining the cells is very hard, and is termed _lignin_, or _sclerogen_. This substance is merely a modification of cellulose; and both resemble in composition sugar and starch so closely that, by heating them with sulphuric acid, they may be converted into sugar.]

[Footnote 31: One part of oil is equal to 2-1/2 parts of starch--that is, 2-1/2 parts of starch are expended in the production of 1 part of fat.]

[Footnote 32: No difference is here assumed between the nutritive value of sugar and starch.]

[Footnote 33: Unless when Kohl-rabi is cultivated, for the bulbs of this plant may be preserved in good condition up to June. I have advocated the cultivation of the radish as a food crop in the "Agricultural Review" for 1861.]

[Footnote 34: According to some chemists, sugar does not exist in ripe grain, but is produced in it, during the process of analysis, by the action of the re-agents employed and the influence of the air.]

[Footnote 35: Report to Government on feeding cattle with Malt, 1844.]

[Footnote 36: _Monthly Agricultural Review_, Dublin, February, 1859.]

[Footnote 37: _Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland,_ October, 1858.]

[Footnote 38: 3 lbs. of rape-cake, 3/4 lb. malt combs, 3/4 lb. bran, steamed together with a sufficient quantity of straw.]