102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Ill the Mangold ■wurtzel. 

 riesh-fonning matter, 

 Heat-giving, &c., . 



.A.SI1, • • • • « 



Water, ..... 



100.00 

 Now, if we compare these -with the analysis of red clover, as 

 freshly cut in the field, which is as follows: 



Flesh -forming principles, . . . 4.27 



Heat-producing, &c., 

 AVoodj fibre. 

 Ash, 

 Water, 



9.15 



3.76 



1.82 



81.00 



100.00 

 we see that the nutritive matter of the carrot, the beet, and newly 

 cut clover, to be nearly alike in amount, and about thirteen per cent, of 

 their weight, and that of the turnip to be about nine or ten per cent, 

 of its weight, or about two-thirds to three-fourths as much as the 

 others. 



If we take the above as the basis of our estimate, and allow a 

 shrinkage of two-thirds in curing the clover, we cannot rate the roots 

 at more than a third its value when dry, nor over a quarter, if it 

 shrink three-fourths;* and so far as we can judge from the analyses 

 of the various grasses usually cultivated, it seems hardly safe to 

 reckon the actual nutritive power of roots at over a fourth that of 

 f^ood hay. It should be borne in mind, however, that the econom- 

 ical value of any article of food cannot be absolutely and accurately 

 determined by analysis, inasmuch as a great deal may depend 

 upon peculiarities of constitution in each, the practical results of 

 which, when used as food, it is beyond the power of analysis to 

 compute or predict; and hence the necessity of careful and accurate 

 experiments in feeding. In some respects, the carrot seems to 



*Tlii9 nisiy seem a large allowarce, but if the sample analyzed was cut so green 

 as to contiiiii eighty per cent, of water, such allowance wouKl still leave a fifth of its 

 whole weig-lif, or twenty per cent, of water remaining in the cured clover, which 

 may be not fur from the usual fact, when simply dried in the open air. 



