DIRECTIONS FOR FEEDING. 



235 



may prove not without interest in regard to the subject 

 before us. 



As my subsequent statements regarding the relative feed- 

 ing-value of different kinds of corn, &c, are, in the main, in 

 conformity with Grouven's mode of representing the analyti- 

 cal chemical results of the examination of a fodder for prac- 

 tical purposes, I consider it necessary, for a mutual under- 

 standing between the agricultural chemist and the practical 

 farmer, to insert a short explanation of the technical expres- 

 sions unavoidable in a report on scientific problems. 



All our plants, and, consequently, most of our common 

 articles of fodder, contain four groups of nutritive com- 

 pounds ; i.e., proteine or nitrogenous substances, saccharine 

 or non-nitrogenous substances, fatty compounds, and salines 

 or mineral constituents. These substances are present in ab- 

 solutely and relatively different quantities in each plant or 

 part of plant. They serve in absolutely and relatively differ- 

 ent proportions for the support of animal life. Each kind and 

 each condition of animals requires different proportions of 



