crops when raised upon rich or exhausted lands, renders many of our 

 current tabular statements of the chemical composition of the more 

 prominent articles of fodder of doubtful merit in the hands of the 

 farmer, tvho considers them an unfailing guide in his special case. 

 The majoritj' of these fodder tables may be traced to one source 

 (E. Wolff); they state the mean of a smaller or larger number of 

 analyses, quite frequently made without any intention to ascertain 

 the possible variations in the composition of the article under inves- 

 tigation. The analytical statements themselves refer in the majority 

 of cases to plants raised in Germany and in other European coun- 

 tries. Whilst the great value of these tables from an agricultural 

 edu 'ational standpoint must be conceded ; their analytical statements 

 require a qualification before they may be safely relied on in home 

 practice. The annual report of the Secretary of the Mass. State 

 Board of Agriculture for 1882, pages 104 to 114, contain a tabular 

 Statement of the composition of many fodder crops, giving the ex- 

 tremes (highest and lowest percentages found) with reference to each 

 group of the nutritive constituents. This mode of stating the com- 

 position of the various farm crops, tends to direct the attention 

 more decidedly towards the advantages arising from a proper cultiva- 

 tion of fodder crops. The experimenl station has entered upon a 

 systematic course of investigation to assist in determining the influ- 

 ence of stage of growth and of cultivation on the feeding value of 

 some of our prominent forage plants. 



103. COTTON SEED MEAL. (1) 



Sent on by J. E. Soper & Co., of Boston. 

 Eighty-six per cent, passed through mesh of 144 to the square inch. 



