108 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



for harvesting enable the farmer better than formerly to choose bis 

 time. 



When an acre can be cut in an hour v.hicli formerly required the 

 best part of a day, and raked with a proportionate saving of time, it 

 is evident that this subject assumes a greater importance than when, 

 however well he might be advised as to the best time, he was com- 

 pelled to lose considerably at one end or the other, not to say at both. 



The nutritive value of the different grasses compared with one 

 another is a subject of great importance, and one which has received 

 much attention. Its study either by the aid of chemical analysis or 

 by actual trials in feeding, is beset with difficulties. Every good 

 farmer can understand how the age, condition and temperament of 

 an animal, and the treatment in other respects than that of feeding, 

 together with a thousand other circumstances difficult of accurate 

 estimation, might vary results : and the great discrepancies in the 

 nutritive values of various vegetable foods as assigned to them by 

 different authors who base their statements upon feeding experi- 

 ments, also show that there is abundant margin for fallacies to creep 

 in, by this mode. Every good chemist, too, is ready to admit that 

 his utmost skill and care will not unfrecjuently give results widely 

 diffcrinnr from those obtained from actual feeding;. The labors of 

 both have not been without a degree of practical value, and as science 

 and practice never advanced more rapidly than now, or were so 

 willing to walk hand in hand, we may hope that by and bye, through 

 the united labors of the feeder in the stall and the chemist in his 

 laboratory, we may attain much greater light, and reliable results 

 by which we may be safely guided. 



The first extensive and careful experiments which threw light 

 upon this subject, were instituted by the Duke of Bedford, and car- 

 ried out and published under the superintendence of Mr. George 

 Sinclair, in 1824. The method then adopted to ascertain the nu- 

 tritive value of any grass, .although directed by Sir Humphrey 

 Davy, and the best which chemical science at that comparatively 

 early day could give, was exceedingly imperfect. It was siitply 

 this : submit the grass to the action of hot water till all its soluble 

 parts are taken up ; then separate the liquor, and evaporate to dry- 

 ness. The product of solid matter was deemed the nutritive matter 

 of the' grass. 



