664 



EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



author and others, from which he concludes that mineral matter, in the form 

 of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium, is indispensable to the life 

 of both the cell and the tissues, and that magnesium, by the reduction of CO- 

 from the air is the means by which nutrients enter into both plant and animal 

 life. 



The action of chocolate and coffee on renal excretion, P. Fauvel (Compt. 

 Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 64 (1908), No. 11, pp. 854-S56, dgm. i).— In the ex- 

 periments reported it was found that, both chocolate and coffee inci-eased 

 markedly the purins in the urine but notably diminished uric acid without at 

 the same time causing a retention of this acid in the body. 



On the duration of rest after eating-, Hallopeau (Rev. Soc. Sci. Hyg. 

 Aliment., 3 (1906), No. 5, pp. 911-919). — The author favors, for mental workers, 

 a rest of short duration after the midday meal and an extended rest after the 

 evening meal. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



Digestion experiments with the native hay of the Truckee meadows, S. C. 

 DiNSMORE and P. B. Kennedy (Nevada Sta. Bui. 6Jf, pp. 5-23, pJ. 1). — Five 

 feeding trials of hay from native grasses and sweet clovers of the Truckee 

 meadows and lasting 14 days each were made with two S-year old sheep. The 

 second growth hay of the first experiment consisted principally of spike rush 

 (Eleocharis arenicola), Nebraska sedge (Carex nehraskensis) , brown-top sedge 

 (C. athrostachya) , and native clover (Trifolium spinulosum) . About half of 

 the clover sample in experiment 2 consisted of T. hybridum and T. sphiulosuin, 

 the remainder being composed of several varieties of native grasses and sedges. 

 The bulk of the hay in sample 3 consisted of Buckley blue grass (Poa biick- 

 leyana), alkali meadow grass (PuccinelUa airoides), and spike rush. The hay 

 of experiment 4 was largely timothy and tickle grass (Hordeum juMUim). 

 Common wire grass (Juncus halticus) and brown-top sedge composed about one- 

 half of sample 5, the other species present, but in small quantities, being com- 

 mon blue grass (Poa pratensis), white-top (Agrostis exarata), small-leafed 

 red-top (A. microphylla) , slough grass (Beckmannia erucwformis) , and salt 

 grass (Distichlis spicata). 



The following table shows the average coeflScients of digestibility of the 

 different samples: 



Average coefficients of digestibilitij of Nevada native grasses — Experiments 



icith sheep. 



" The native hay of the Truckee meadows has proved, so far as can be deter- 

 mined by digestion experiments, to be an excellent forage for fattening stock. 

 It could perhaps be more economically fed if a fodder containing more protein 

 (e. g., alfalfa) were fed along with it. . . . 



