677 



European products as compared witli the Arnerican. The data at hand 

 do not suffice for satisfactory comparisons of other grasses and h^giimes. 

 Those for wheat show a prepondcrauce of nitrogen in that from the 

 better-cultivated regions of continental Europe as comjiared with that 

 from the United States. The comi)arative averages for the other grains, 

 of which the numl)er of analyses is smaller, are irregular. 



It looks very much as though we have by careless culture and insuf- 

 fieient manuring of our grasses and other forage crops, if not our grains, 

 for years been gradually breeding varieties poor in nitrogen, while in 

 Europe the opposite course has been inirsued. Ceitain it is that our 

 grasses often contain smaller percentages of i^rotein than are found in 

 the best qualities of cornstalks, and even straw. 



Nor has the chemist ahme noticed the difference in feeding value of 

 these products. It has long been understood by pra(;tical farmers. 

 Mr. James Wood, president of the New York State Agricultural Society, 

 informs me that he has found the statistics of the quantities of hay 

 required in the Eastern States and in England for the production of a 

 given amount of milk or meat to show a very considerable difference in 

 favor of the English hay. Part of the difference may be due to better 

 animals and feeding, but part nuist be due to better food. 



The value of nitrogenous feeding stuffs is only gradually coming to 

 be appreciated, but the progress of exact experimenting brings it out 

 more and more clearly. Thus the experiments on the etteets of fodder 

 upon the production of milk, lately made in some of our stations, emi>ha- 

 size the value of narrow rations. Similar and more striking results 

 have been found in an extended series of experiments in feeding cows 

 for milk and steers for beef conducted under the auspices of the Halle 

 Experiment Station (see Experiment Station liecord, vol. iii, pp. 557 

 and 640). Even with coarse foods of good quality — hay, clover, and 

 straw — very large proportions of concentrated nitrogenous foods were 

 found advantageous. More protein and narrower rations than those 

 of Wolff's standards were found most i)rofitable. 



In the second place, our meats, upon which we depend to supi)ly the 

 lirotein which our vegetable foods lack, are excessively fat. This fact, 

 which is well understood in a general way, is made very clear by chem 

 ical analj'sis. Thus in Konig's* compilation of the analyses of beef 

 the average of the European analyses (French, German, and Austrian) 

 for "medium-fat beef" gives 5.4 per cent of fat. The average of a 

 series of analyses of Chicago beef,t such as was said to be of medium 

 fatness, was not far from 27 per cent. A few of the analyses which 

 gave this average were reported some time ago and are incorporated 

 by Konig with those of very fat beef, for which his average is 29.3 per 

 cent of fat. 



*Cheinie fler menschlichenNahrnngs-nnd Geuiissmittel, dritte Anflage, B. 1,187. 

 t These with others are detailed in the Kepoit of the Comiecticut Stoiis Station 

 for 1891. 



