PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION B. 343 



5._N0TES ON FODDER ANALYSIS. 

 By J. G. BRUNNICH, F.I.C., and FRANK SMITH, B.Sc. 

 [Abstract.] 



It has, in the course of work on fodder materials, seemed to us 

 desirable to adopt a simple scheme of analysis that will provide a wider 

 basis of comparison of nutritive values than that based upon the usual 

 determinations of moisture, crude fat, ash, protein, crude fibre, and 

 nitrogen free extract (by difference), and especially to render a more pre- 

 cise account of those substances generallv grouped under the last head. 



W. E. Stone (J. Amer. S.C, 1897, xix., 183-197 and 347-349) 

 extracts successively with (1) boiling alcohol, (2) cold water, (3) dias- 

 tase, (4) boiling dilute hydrochloric acid, (5) boiling 1-25 per cent, 

 caustic soda solution, and obtains a residue of crude fibre. Since this 

 method gave only 7-18 per cent, pentosan in a sample of hay, a class 

 of substance yielding approximately 20 per cent, by the approved 

 Phlorogluein method, and since the fibre of the author must necessarily 

 be contaminated by furfurol-yielding substances, it was not deemed 

 suitable for dealing with food materials very rich in pentosan and cel- 

 lulose bodies. 



Brown and Beistle (J. Amer. C.S., 1901, xxiii., 229) contend that 

 the older methods of procedure, while sufficient for many purposes, 

 are by no means scientifically accurate, and urge that a closer study 

 be made of the nitrogen free extract. The scheme set forth by them 

 comprises successive extractions ^dth (1) anhydrous ether, (2) 95 per 

 cent, alcohol, (3) cold water, (4) diastase solution, (5) dilute acid and 

 alkali and chlorination and alkali treatment, and examination of the 

 extracts. 



They thus directly estimate crude fat, sugars, dextri \ starch, 

 lignic acids, lignin, cellulose, pentosans, protein, and ash, with gums 

 indirectly. They also show that the solvents employed dissolve pentose 

 bodies, which pass to some extent into the aqueous and diastase ex- 

 tracts, and further admit that their cellulose contains a furfurol-yielding 

 body, possiblv of an oxv-cellulose nature. This method, as well as 

 that of P. Schweitzer (j. Amer. C.S., 1904, xxvi., 252), who diffe- 

 rentiates the carbohydrates present in feeding stuffs into pure fibre, 

 fibro-pentosan, pectose, pecto-pentosan, sugar, starch, and " indefinite 

 carbohydrates," has not recommended itself, and it has been the custom 

 in our laboratory to make the following determinations : — Moisture, 

 true protein (soluble and insoluble in water), crude fibre (Konig), 

 pentosans, " starch," carbohydrates (soluble in water), crude fat, ash, 

 total matter soluble in water, soluble ash, and amides, chlorophyll, &c., 

 by difference. 



Preparation of the Sample. — It is rarely possible to carry out the 

 analysis on the material in the fresh-cut condition, and it has, therefore, 

 been customary to deal with it in the air-dry state — a condition approxi- 

 mating to that of natural hay. The analysis is done on the material 

 ground to uniform fineness, and passed through a 1 m.m. mesh sieve. 



