EXPERIMENT STyiTION RECORD. 



Vol. VI. No. 4. 



The British Board of Ajiricnlture has recently issued the first number 

 of a quarterly publicatiou, which is entitled the Journal of the Board 

 of Agriculture. This journal will contain iuforination as to the condi- 

 tion of agriculture in the colonies and abroad, accounts of investiga- 

 tions at experiment stations and similar institutions in Great Britain 

 and elsewhere, notices of innovations in the system of cultivation and 

 of improvements in methods of marketing and distributing, notes on 

 crop i)rospects in different countries, descriptions of insects, fungi, and 

 other farm pests, and especially agricultural statistics. The material 

 in the first number is grouped under nineteen chapters, one of which is 

 devoted to abstracts of parliamentary publications dealing with agricul- 

 ture. This journal, like other otiicial publications of the British Gov- 

 ernment, will be ])laced on sale, the price for each number being six- 

 pence. Advertisements are also admitted as in private journals. 



Now that the low price of wheat has led to the desire for reliable 

 information as to its nutritive value for farm animals, it is unfortunate 

 that we have no reliable data as to the digestibility of this cereal. 

 Analyses of the whole and different parts of the grain are quite 

 luimerous, but neither the compilations of digestion coefficients of Wolff, 

 Kiihn, Dietrich and Jvouig, Jordan, or Lindsey contain any coefficients 

 for wheat. In Dietrich and Konig's extensive work on composition and 

 digestibility of feeding stuffs, issued in 1801, the relative amounts of 

 digestible components are computed for winter and summer, and for 

 flinty and mealy wheat. Calculation shows that the following coeffi- 

 cients of digestibility were used in computing these amounts: Protein 

 87, fat SO, nitrogen-free extract 95, and fiber 55.8 per cent. The 

 authors state that in the case of feeding stuffs whose digestibility is as 

 yet undetermined the digestion coefficients for other feeding stuffs of 

 similar nature and composition were used. But the above coefficients 

 for wheat do not correspond to those for any other cereal or for corn. 

 The coefficient for protein is about 10 per cent in excess of that for 

 barley, corn, or oats. The figures used correspond more closely to 

 those for certain leguminous seeds. Unfortunately we have no coefii- 

 cients for rye, which, on account of its similarity 1so wheat, would be a 

 helpful guide. In calculating the digestible nutrients in this material 

 Dietrich and Konig use the same coefficients as for wheat. The tables 

 giving the proportions of albuminoid and non-albuminoid nitrogen in 



255 



