AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 87 



The samples from which these analyses were made were grown 

 on the same farm, under quite similar conditions of climate and soil, 

 and so any diflerences in the composition of the various species of 

 clovers, grasses, etc., would seem to be characteristic, so far as 

 they are not occasioned by cutting at unlike stages of growth. In 

 all but one instance, however, the samples were taken as nearly as 

 possible while the plants were in the period of full bloom. 



From the above analyses it is not apparent that wild oat grass, 

 blue joint, buttercup, and white weed have a composition inferior 

 to the more highly prized timoth}- and red top, in fact the former 

 plants are more nitrogenous than the latter. 



The popular impression is different nevertheless, and -if farmers 

 are correct in their conclusions we must look farther than the ordi- 

 nary analysis of a fodder in order to learn its feeding value, for 

 most certainly stock feeders are not willing to allow that blue joint 

 is more valuable than good upland grasses like timothy and red top, 

 as the analyses seem to show. We need more information than is 

 given by the figures of an ordinary table of fodder analyses. 



We should remember that in estimating protein by the formula 

 Nx6:25, we learn nothing of the character of the nitrogen com- 

 pounds in different feeding stuffs, that the nitrogen-free-extractive 

 matter is determined b}' difference, with no knowledge whether the 

 amounts present of the more valuable carbohydrates like starch and 

 sugar are relatively the same in all, and that the nutrition to be 

 derived from a food depends as much upon its digestibility as upon 

 its composition. It may be that after we learn all that we can on 

 these points we shall come to the conclusion that farmers are very 

 much influenced by the palatableness of a food in foru^ing their 

 opinions of its value, and it may be that some of our feeding stuffs 

 commonly regarded as inferior, simply need to be rendered 

 palatable in order to become efficient cattle foods. We have no 

 evidence showing that fodders are necessarily nutritious in propor- 

 tion as they are relished by cattle. 



In fact the qualities which render a cattle food palatable have no 

 direct connection with its capacity for sustaining animal life. 



The composition of the eleven samples mentioned in the above 

 tables of analyses has been studied somewhat more thoroughly' than 

 is usual. 



Attention was given to two points : 



(1) The amount of uon-albuminoid material which by the usual 

 method is reckoned as part of the protein. 



