HOUSE BISCUITS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 68, 18 January 1879, Page 3

HOUSE BISCUITS.

Tho Prussian military administration, after the close of tho Franco-German war, established at great expense an experimental station at Nancy for the army of occupation, designed for making trials, technically and scientifically, in regard to foods which may be used by troops in a general way or under particularly ditlieult circumstances. The direction of the faotory created with this intention was confided to M. Gustavo Warnocke, of Frankfort-on-Aluin. In the different manufactures and experiments that were made their, special attention was paid to the alimentation of horses, since these animals had been of such decisive importance in the different periods of tho war of 1870*71; After long and laborious gropings in the dork, Warnecko's " biscuits for horses" wero finally produced. These, after a very severe trial on a large proportion of tho horses belonging to the army of occupation, are admitted to be a great buuocus, Tho " biscuit for hoi-.>c.%'' or, as

it ha* be. n also call,-.!, tho •' <mt comfit," consist of 90 paits of oat Hour, :i() jiarts of ■• doxtrinated pea meal, 80 parts of rye floor, ami 10 parts Unseed meal : or. W parts of oat floor, 40 parts of dextriminated pea meal, and 20 parts of Unseed uieal; or, 23 parts of pea meal, 20 parts »f wheat Hour, 20 parts of com meal 20 pans of rye Hour, 10 parte of grated bread, 10 parts of linseed meal ;or, finally, other analogous mixtures. As the result of minute experiments it is stated that 4 pounds of these mixtures well cooked, possess a nutritive value equal to that of a large ration of oats of about three times the Height. So the Prussian administration of tie- armv of occupation, taking the results observed by the cavalry officers and the veterinary surgeons as a basis, admits t'.iat :i\ pounds of-oat comfits" are worth 12 pounds of oats. Experiments also demonstrated that horses fed on twelve pounds of oats did not support the fatigue to which they were submitted so well as those had received •'!'. pounds of comfits.

A result so brilliant, and one so favorable to the rapid movements of cavalry, could not remain ignored by other great military powers. The inventor, called to St. Petersburg, manufactured in that city, according to the above formulas, ten thousand rations of horse biscuits, which wuii: submitted, in the cavalry and the cossacks of the Guard, to experiments still more minute than those of the Prussian army. The leases were fed ou the biscuits during twenty-six days (in Prussia ten days only) ; and every day notes wore made of the state, plumpness, and weight of the horses, and their strength tested with the dynamometer. The superiority of the comfits over oats (a third of which are undigested and lost in the lieaj.) was so marked that they were adopted, not only in imitation of Prussia as an exceptional recourse for times of war, but also as a steady food in time of peace. The best recommendation that the new invention possesses is that the troops eat more of tiie biscuits than the horses. To put, an end to this practice tin- Prussian administration was obliged to order live per cent of lupin flour to be imxed vol- J e malev! i's -;l tee Lis

A ration is, as that already been slated about 3) poinds; it coniprisesjjfroui 25 lo :J0 bireuits of from 4to ■". inches in diameter by four truths of an inch in thickness. Ties.- biscuits, strung on wiiv. eaii be suspended to the saddle without danger of breakage, and a horse can thus easily carry nourishment enough to last him four or five days. They are given, either dry or wel (after having

been broken up), at lie- rale of 7 in the morning, !2 at noon, ami 7 in tin: evening.—Scientific Amerieun. #