213 



food of cows, there was no apparent difference as when the 

 animals had abundance of grass to feed on. Clumps of bambo© 

 had been cut down and had sprung up again, providing dense 

 masses of foliage for feeding stock. As regards horses, bamboo 

 is spoken of locally as a 'hard' food, that is, a food that make 

 horses hard, able to stand hard work better than the more 

 succulent grasses. My experience would tend to confirm this. 



" Of course bamboos are generally grown along riversides or 

 grown to shade ponds, and are not often found growing through 

 pastures. They are, however, a good stand-by in drought when 

 stock-owners are short of grass." 



These analyses are the work of Mr. H. S. Hammond, F.C.S., 

 assistant Chemist, and although the study of Jamaican fodders is 

 by no means complete, owing to Mr. Hammond's resignation of 

 his appointment, it was considered desirable to publish the work 

 so far as he had been able to carry it. We wish Mr. Hammond 

 every success in his new sphere and regret that the laboratory has 

 lost his valuable services. 



CORNS. 



Maize. {Zea Mays.) 



A special study of the composition of country corn as compared 

 with the imported American corn has been made by Mr. E. J. 

 Wortley of this department and the results of his analyses are here 

 given. The outstanding features of this investigation are (l) the 

 great superiority of country corn over the imported corn as a 

 source of albuminoids and (2) the excessive amount of moisture in 

 the country corn. Calculated on a uniform basis of 12 per cent, 

 moisture, country corn shows a content of over 10 per cent, of 

 albuminoids as against a little over 7 per cent, in the imported 

 article. 



The prejudice against country corn among horsekeepers has 

 arisen simply from the excessive moisture and the liability of such 

 corn to ferment and give horses colic. If properly dried our native 

 product is decidedly superior to the imported corn. To secure 

 immunity from fermentation corn should be dried to a content of 

 12-13 per cent, of moisture. This was attained with the corn at 

 the Experiment Station at Hope by drying for 12 days. 



Guinea corn. (Sorghum vulgare.) 

 The analysis of this corn shows that it contains 12 per cent, of 

 albuminoids and is decidedly superior to any sample of maize in 

 the list. 



In olden days guinea corn was an important staple and formed 

 one of the chief foods of both man and beast in Jamaica. It is of 

 interest to record so favourable a composition for a crop grown 

 with such simple culture and capable of such good returns in dry 

 districts. 



