COMPILATIOJi OF ANALYSES OF AMERICAN FEEDING STUFFS. 



A compilation of analyses of American feeding stuffs has been pre- 

 pared for this Department by E. H. Jenkins, Pb. D., vice-director, and 

 A. L. Winton,jr., Pb.B., chemist, of the Connecticut State Station, and 

 will be issued through this Office as soon as practicable. It is intended 

 to include all analyses of American feeding stuffs which were pub- 

 lished before September 1, 1890, and were accessible to the compilers. 

 The analyses are collated from the publications of 49 experiment sta- 

 tions, of this Department, and of schools, colleges, and agricultural 

 societies in the United States and Canada. The earliest were analyses 

 of corn (kernel), made in 1869 in the chemical laboratory of the Sheffield 

 Scientific School, under the direction of Professor S. W. Johnson. The 

 total number of specimens of which analyses are given is 3,273. The 

 compilers say : 



It has been our aim to limit ourselves quite strictly to mere compilation, thus 

 jiresentin}^ in the most accessible sliape a complete record of the work which has 

 been done in this country in the line of proximate analysis of feeding stuifs, with a 

 reference in every case to the original publication. * » » 



It is probable that there was greater divergence in the methods of analysis in 

 this country in former years than there is at present, although it is within our 

 knowledge that all analyses made at the Bussey Institution and at the Connecticut 

 Experiment Station at Middletown, beginning in 1875, and at New Haven, beginning 

 in 1877, as well as those made still earlier at New Haven in the ShefiSeld Scientific 

 School, were all done by the original Weendo methods of Henneberg and Stohmann 

 until the methods were modified to accord with those of the Association of Official 

 Agricultural Chemists. These include nearly all the analyses made previous to 1880. 



The American Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, which w^as organ- 

 ized in 1884 and which first took up the consideration of methods of the proximate 

 analysis of feeding stuffs in 1887, has done very much to introduce uniformity iuto 

 the methods and work of all laboratories in this country, and it is believed that 

 Bince 1887 the official methods of the association have come into use in nearly all our 

 station laboratories. In view of this fact we have aimed to arrange the difl^'ereut 

 analyses of each material in something like chronological order. Other things being 

 equal, the later analyses of different laboratories should be more nearly comparable 

 ■with each other than the older analyses. » • » 



Realizing the difficulties and uncertainties [of computing averages from the data 

 collected], we have yet felt justified in inserting statements of the average composi- 

 tion of most of the feeding stuffs. Our object has been to supply data which might 

 serve as a help aud general guide in jiractical cattle feeding till further study and 

 more accurate analyses shall provide something better. 



Tlie computations of average composition with minima and maxima 

 arc inclad«Hl in a final table, which is reprodu(!ed herewith in the belief 

 that it will be widely and warmly welcomed. 



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