146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of sowing fodder-corn, to cut up green, and feed to cows and 

 other stock. Within a few years another plant, known as 

 Hungarian grass, has been introduced, and has come to be 

 extensively cultivated. It is a valuable acquisition to our 

 forage-crops, and is probably better for keeping up the flow 

 of milk in a herd of dairy cows than green corn or any other 

 soiling-crop, while it possesses incidental advantages which 

 recommend it for general use. 



Some chemists think they have discovered the corner-stone 

 on which all economical feeding rests ; and that it consists in 

 the proper mixture of albuminoids and carbo-hydrates. 

 Whether this constitutes the true basis or not, we need not 

 undertake to say. Science is constantly progressive ; and some 

 chemist may discover, or think he has discovered, some n^ 

 elements which may upset all our theories in regard to the 

 nutrition of animals. But, taking this as the latest scientific 

 dictum on this point, let us compare this plant which we call 

 Hungarian grass, with other well-known feeding-substances, 

 and see if we can derive any information that will be satis- 

 factory. 



According to the analysis of Hungarian grass recently fur- 

 nished me, at my request, by Professor C. A. Goessmann, the 

 State agricultural chemist, the plant in a green state, cut when 

 grown from eighteen to twenty-four inches high, — the condi- 

 tion in which it is usually taken to feed out green, as a forage- 

 crop, — contains 5.86 per cent of albuminoids ; while Timothy, 

 cut in a similar condition, or in the form of green grass, con- 

 tains only 4.86 per cent of the same elements, or just one per 

 cent less, — a difference in favor of the first. Hungarian grass 

 in the same stage of growth contains 11.34 per cent of woody 

 fibre, a comparatively indigestible material ; while Timothy 

 contains 11,32 per cent, or two-hundredths of one per cent less, 

 — an exceedingly slight difference in favor of the Timothy. 

 In respect to fatty and nitrogenous elements, Hungarian grass 

 contains 14.95 per cent, while Timothy contains 24.35 per 

 cent, — a difference in favor of Timothy, so far as the nitro- 

 genous extracts are concerned. 



If, now, we take the hay made from Hungarian grass, and 

 compare it with that made from Timothy, we find, that, in the 

 former, there are 9.37 per cent of albuminoids, in the latter 

 11.36, and in June or Kentucky blue-grass hay, 10.35, show- 



