244 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



satisfactory explanation of this. If you watch cows on depas- 

 ture, you observe them select their own food; if you supply cows 

 in stall alike with food, they will also select for themselves. I 

 give rape cake as a mixture to all, and induce them to eat the 

 requisite quantity; yet some will select the rape cake first, and 

 eat it up clean, whilst others rather neglect it till towards the 

 close of their meal, and then leave pieces in the trough. Two 

 Alderneys — the only cows of the kind I have as yet had — whose 

 butter-producing qualities are well known, are particularly fond 

 of rape cake, and never leave a morsel. May not these animals 

 l)e prompted by their instinct to select such food as is best suited 

 to their wants and propensities ? If so, it seems of the greatest 

 importance that the dairyman should be informed of the proper- 

 ties of food most suitable for his purpose, especially whilst in a 

 stall where they have little opportunity of selecting. 



" It appears worth the attention of our Society to make inqui- 

 ries as to the localities which are known as producing milk pecu- 

 liarly rich in butter. When traveling in Germany I well recollect 

 being treated with peculiarly rich milk, cream and butter, on my 

 tour between Dresden and Toplitz, at the station or resting place, 

 on the Chaussee or turnpike road, before you descend a very steep 

 incline to the valley in which Toplitz is situated. I travelled 

 this way after an interval of several years, when the same treat 

 was again offered. It was given as a rarity, and can only be 

 accounted for by the peculiar adaptation of the herbage of the 

 country for the production of butter. 



NUTRITIVE AND FATTENING QUALITIES OF GRASSES. 



In connection with the subject discussed in Mr. Horsfall's paper, 

 w^e give extracts from an article in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, vol. 14, p. 171, " On the rela- 

 tive JYutritive and Fattening properties of different natural and 

 artificial grasses^"^ by J. Thomas Way, Consulting Chemist to the 

 Society. This is much more full and reliable than that of Sir 

 George Sinclair, Bart., Hortus Gramineus Wohumensis — published 

 in 1824, which heretofore has been the only work on grasses, to 

 which reference is made. 



