FERTILIZER CONTROL STATION. 325 



ative amount of protein than do the grains is in their favor in the com- 

 parison. 



As to the possibility of making exact comparisons between different 

 kinds of food, you are referred to page 76 of the last report ot the Station, 

 a copy of which is sent with this. Nevertheless, the above comparisons 

 have a great deal of meaning when we consider the value of foods for 

 general use." 



Swale Hay vs. Timothy Hay. 

 Later, Mr. Chandler made the following inquiries in regard to 

 swale hay and Timothy hay : 



In the report of the Maine Board of Agriculture for 1880 on page 166, I 

 find the analysis of bog hay or fresh marsh hay. Is that the same thing as 

 New Gloucester swale hay? In this table on p:ige 166 the standard of 

 con:parison is meadow ha\'. Please tell mo just what is meant there by 

 '•meadow hay." If meadow hay there means first-class, No. 1, Herd's- 

 grass or Timothy hay, I am sui'prised to see the money value of bog hay 

 for feeding put at .90 when the market value is usually just about one-half 

 the value of good hay. 



Beply. "The analyses to which you refer probably fairly represent the 

 composition of New Gloucester interval hay, taken as a whole. 



It is very probable that In comparing the feeding value of Timothy 

 hay and low meadow hay, farmers allow too high a value to Timothy hay. 

 But this is opinion merely. 'Meadow hay' as given in fodder tables means 

 hay from upland grasses— mixed grasses as we ordinarily find them mixed. 

 The composit'on of 'meadow hay' (English grasses) does not differ greatly 

 from the composition of pure Timothy, as you can see by any complete 

 table of analyses. So far as mere composition is concerned, the grasses 

 of the New Gloucester 'interval' are nearly if not quite equal to Tim- 

 othy, and if we find them to be as digestible as Timothy, there is no 

 reason why the latter should be of greater feeding value. The digesti- 

 bility is the point concerning which we need more information, in order 

 to make a comparison. Palatableness is often the criterion by which the 

 nutritive value of a fodder is judged, but this is not a correct standard. 

 Many farmers regard Timothy hay as a fodder whose value for consump- 

 tion on the fiirm is much below its market price, and acting upon this be- 

 lief they sell all their Timothy hay and feed the low-ground hay. With 

 the prices of the two kinds of hay as 2 to 1, this is undoubtedly good bus- 

 iness policy." 



(6) DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS. 



The work of ascertaining the digestibility of some of our common 

 cattle foods, which was begun in 1885-6, has been continued in 1886- 

 7. This work has had for one object the determination of the coeffi- 

 cients of digestibility of several feeding stuffs, but at the same time 



