ae Oy a 
X.—ON THE ABNORMAL COMPOSITION OF A CROP OF HAY, 
By CHARLES A. CAMERON, m.p. 
[Read April 15, 1878.] 
Last August, Mr. N. G. Richardson, J.P., of Tyaquin, Monivea, 
County of Galway, made an experiment in the saving of hay by 
what is termed the Hungarian system. 
According to this method the grass is cut and at once buried in 
trenches. The pits are filled with grass up to the surface of the 
surrounding ground, and then covered over with soil which, slop- 
ing from the centre, throws the rain off the trenches. Captain 
Burnaby, in his book “A Ride to Khiva,’* page 243, states that 
the Tartars bury grass when cut in pits, and dig it up the following 
year, when it is found to be “as fresh as the day it was cut.” 
Meadow hay grown in Mr. Richardson’s orchard was cut in 
August, and whilst green and wet with rain was buried in a pit 
dug in a gravel hill. The grass was taken up in November, and 
was found to present the appearance of ordinary grass; it was 
then air dried and converted into hay. Its composition per 100 
parts proved to be as follows :— 
Composition of the Hay. 
100 parts contain— 
Water, . 5 : $ = P 16°45 
Fats, 2 5 : 5 - e 2-08 
Albuminoids, : ; = 7°05 
Non-nitrogenous digestible matters, : ‘ 27:00 
Woody fibre, : : - : : 27-00 
Mineral matter, . : , S 5 11°65 
100-00 
The amount of water in this hay was very little above that 
found in new hay, the latter generally containing about 15 per 
* London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1877. 
+ Substances which dissolved in weak alkaline and acid solutions alternatively applied 
to the hay. 
