526 COMPOSITION OF THE GREEN STEMS OP PEAS, ETC. 



The following table exhibits the approximate composition of the 



freen stems of some clovers and vetches, as they have been given by 

 linhof and Crome : — 



100 100 99-9 100 99-6 100 100 100 100 



§ 24. Of the composition of the grasses when made into hay. 



1°. An elaborate examination of the grasses of this country, in the 

 dry state, with the view of determining their relative nutritive proper- 

 ties, was made by the late Mr. Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bed- 

 ford. His method was to boil in water equal weights of each species of 

 hay till every thing soluble was taken up, and to evaporate the solution 

 to dryness. The weights of the dry matter thus obtained he considered 

 to represent the nutritive values of the grasses from which the several 

 samples of hay were made. 



The results of Mr. Sinclair, however, have lost much of their value, 

 since it has been satisfactorily ascertained — 



a. That the proportion of soluble matter yielded by any species of 

 grass, when made into hay, varies not only with the age of the grass, 

 when cut, but with the soil, the climate, the season, the rapidity of 

 growth, the variety of seed sown, and with many other circumstances 

 which are susceptible of constant variation. 



h. That animals have the power of digesting a greater or less propor- 

 tion of that part of their food which is insoluble in water. Even the 

 woody fibre of the hay is not entirely useless as an article of nourish- 

 iiiont — experiment having shown that the manure often contains less 

 of this insoluble matter than was present in the food consumed.* (Spren- 



c. That some of the substances which are of the greatest importance 

 lii the nutrition of animals — such as vegetable fibrin, albumen, casein, 

 and legumin — are either wholly insoluble in water or are more or less 

 pcrfectl}'^ coagulated and rendered insoluble by boiling with water. Mr. 

 Sinclair, therefore, must have left behind, among the insoluble parts of 



* This will not appear surprising when it is recollectcxl that, by prolonged digestion in 



" iltd sulphuric acid, insoluble woody fibre naay be slowly changed into sohible gum or 



iu- (see p. 112). The proportion of Ihe woody fibre which will be thus worked up in the 



dilultd sulphuric acid, insoluble woody fibre xnay be slowly changed into soluble gum or 

 [see p. 112). The proportion of lh( 

 iriach of^an animal will depend, ainonft other circumstances, upon the constitution of the 



aiiinuil itself, upon the abundance of food supplied to it, and upon the more or less perfect 

 niaiiiication to which the food is subjected. 



