98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



reason to fear that sometimes they may be misunderstood or mis- 

 interpreted, and thus lead to dangerous errors. Chemistry may 

 show that there is a great amount of nourishing matter in a given 

 species of grass, yet, it may not be available to the cattle con- 

 suming it, and if so, it will be almost worthless to the farmer. 

 Thus, a grass may contain any amount of sugar, starch or albu- 

 min, stored up in its tissues and juices, but if its leaves are 

 armed with sharp spines as the thistle, or with stinging hairs as 

 the nettle, or if for any mechanical cause it is rejected by animals, 

 it will avail nothing ; or it may have some poisonous principle 

 which is instinctively rejected, or some bitter or nauseous secre- 

 tion mixed with its nutritive matter, or its oder may be repulsive 

 so that cattle will not eat it. In either of these cases, it is of no 

 use to the farmer, even though chemistry shows it to contain 

 much which under other conditions would possess high value. 

 There may be cases, too, where cattle will eat of a grass which 

 contains injurious substances. Sorghum, according to the results 

 of chemical analysis, is rich in nutriment ; but on soils which 

 abound in the soluble silicates, it becomes thickly coated with a 

 substance like glass. While I am writing this, I read of the death 

 of a number of cattle from eating sorghum, the sharp angles of 

 the glassy coating having cut through the coats of their stomachs. 

 While procuring my specimen of the Phragmites communis (reed 

 grass,) I cut ray fingers deeply in two or three places with its 

 siliceous coating. Of course, this glass may be too thin to actu- 

 ally cut through the stomach, and yet thick enough to irritate the 

 mucous surfaces to such a degree as to prevent them from gaining 

 either strength or fat, in either of which cases the nourishment 

 contained in the plant could not be converted into meat or milk. 



These considerations show the necessity of verifying the chem- 

 ical indications by actual trials at the manger, conducted with all 

 possible care and precaution to guard against ambiguities and 

 mistakes. I have searched in vain among the agricultural journals 

 of both Europe and America, for the record of such experiments — 

 if they exist I have been unable to find them. Nothing would 

 tend more to the advancement of agricultural science and to the 

 augmentation of agricultural profits, than a thorough settlement of 

 the exact nutritive values of the different species of grass. To 

 accomplish this result, it is necessary to take at least six milch 

 cows, divided as nearly as may be into two equal lots of three 

 each. Some species, as timothy for instance, should be selected 



