Some of the articles used as food frequently undergo prepa-ation before they are given : they are dried, boiled, bruised, out, and so forth.

One object is to economize the consumption; another to render the food more easily eaten; a third to correct some unwholesome quality; a fourth to give it a new property; a fifth to ensure complete mastication; a sixth to ensure deliberate ingestion; and a seventh to preserve the food. These will be best illustrated by considering the processes to which the food is submitted.

Drying need hardly be mentioned. Its principal object is to preserve the food. Besides depriving it of a large quantity of water, it seems, in some cases, to alter the article in other respects. New oats are purgative; those which are kiln-dried are diuretic. The drying in this case gives a new property, which is not beneficial, but can not, perhaps, be avoided. If the change were effected entirely by taking away water, the food should be restored to its original state by moistening it. This does not happen. Drying renders grain and fodder constipating; new grain and new hay are always laxative. Grass, when converted into hay, suffers fermentation, and loses more than half its weight. According so Sinclair, 7,829 pounds of rye grass lost 4 494 in drying It becomes still drier as it becomes older.

• Jour. Roy. Ag Soe.