NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF GRASSES. 391 



he gives when using hay of the first crop — an answer 

 quite in accordance with what might be expected from 

 its chemical composition. 



It is likewise to be presumed that the quickness of 

 growth will materially affect the composition of grasses, 

 as well as of other vegetables. Your gardener will tell 

 you that if radishes are slow in growth they will be 

 tough and woody ; that asparagus melts in eating, like 

 butter, and salad is crisp when grown quickly. The 

 same effect will, I apprehend, be found in grasses of 

 slow growth : they will contain more of woody fibre, 

 with less of starch or sugar. The quality of butter 

 grown on poor pastures is characterized by greater 

 solidity than on rich feeding pastures. The cows, having 

 to travel over more space, require a greater supply of 

 the elements of respiration, whilst the grasses grown on 

 these poor pastures contain, in all probability, less of 

 these in a digestible form available for respiration. The 

 like result seems probable as from common winter treat- 

 ment — a produce of butter less in quantity, and con- 

 taining a greater proportion of margarine, and a less of 

 oleine. 



It is well known that pastures vary greatly in their 

 butter-producing properties; there is, however, as far 

 as I am aware, no satisfactory explanation of this. If 

 you watch cows on depasture, you observe them select 

 their own food ; if you supply cows in stall alike with 

 food, they will also select for themselves. I give rape- 

 cake as a mixture to all, and induce them to eat the 

 requisite quantity ; yet some will select the rape-cake 

 first, and eat it up clean, whilst others rather neglect it 

 till towards the close of their meal, and then leave 

 pieces in the trough. Two Alderneys,— the only cows 

 of the kind I have as yet had, — whose butter-producing 

 qualities are well known, are particularly fond of rape- 

 cake, and never leave a morsel. May not these animals 

 be prompted by their instinct to select such food as is 

 best suited to their wants and propensities? If so, it 

 seems of the greatest importance that the dairyman 

 should be informed of the properties of food most suit- 



