INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 53 



The year 1880 proved unfortunate for crop-production 

 on the reclaimed areas because of very dry weather 

 during the early part of the season. He concludes this 

 series of papers as follows : ' We believe the community 

 never had more confidence in the richness and fertility 

 of the soil than they have to-day. Evidently, nothing 

 but a favourable decision of the courts is needed to 

 secure outside capital for more general and rapid devel- 

 opment of the agricultural resources of the reclaimed 

 sea-marshes at Marshfield.' 



III. RELATIVE VALUE OF SEVERAL VARIETIES OF CORN 

 FOR FEEDING PURPOSES 



(Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1879.) The paper be- 

 gins with an historical account of the work done on 

 animal nutrition, dividing it roughly into four periods. 



The early attempts to inquire into chemical rela- 

 tions between animal life and animal food, beginning 

 with Lavoisier in 1780 and continuing for the next 

 fifty years, were of but little practical value to agricul- 

 turists, because of the uncertainty of the chemical 

 methods used, and also because stock-feeding had not 

 at that time received much attention. 



The second period began in 1836 with the work of 

 Boussingault and Liebig. The most important service 

 rendered by Boussingault to the science of rational 

 stock-feeding consists in the introduction of the chem- 

 ical analysis as an essential requirement for the deter- 

 mination of the feeding value of an article of fodder. 

 Boussingault was of the opinion that the nitrogen alone 

 of the fodder constituents was of direct feeding value, 



