212 
MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 
before the fire, ray butter melted with far greater rapidity — 
by no means an unsafe test of a greater proportion of olein. 
The chemical investigation of our natural and other grasses 
has hitherto scarcely had the attention which it deserves. 
The most valuable information on this subject is in the paper 
by Professor Way on the nutritive and fattening properties 
of the grasses in vol. xiv, p. 171, of the Royal Agricultural 
Society’s Journal. These grasses were nearly all analysed 
at the flowering time, a stage at which no occupier of grass 
land would expect so favorable a result in fattening. We 
much prefer pastures with young grass not more than a few 
inches high, sufficient to afford a good bite. With a view 
to satisfy myself as to the difference of composition of the 
like grasses at different stages of growth, I sent to Professor 
Way a specimen of the first crop of hay, cut in the end 
of June, when the grass was in the early stage of flowering, 
and one of aftermath, cut towards the close of September, 
from the same meadow, the analyses of which I give — 
Hay, First Crop. 
Moisture .... 
1202 
Aftermath Hay. 
Moisture . 
. 11-87 
Albuminous matter 
9*24 
Albuminous matter 
. 9-84 
Oil and fatty matter . 
2-68 
Oil and fatty matter . 
. 6-84 
Starch, gum, sugar 
39*75 
Starch, gum, sugar 
. 42-25 
Wood fibre . . . 
2741 
Woody fibre 
. 19-77 
Mineral matter . 
8-90 
Mineral matter . 
. 9-43 
100-00 
100 00 
A comparison between these will show a much greater 
per-centage of woody fibre, 27‘41 in the first crop to 19'77 
in the aftermath. The most remarkable difference, however, 
is in the proportion of oil, being 2*68 in the first crop to 
6.84 in the aftermath. 
On inquiry from an observant tenant of a small dairy- 
farm of mine, who has frequently used aftermath hay, 1 learn 
that, as compared with the first crop, he finds it induces 
a greater yield of milk, but is attended with some impoverish- 
ment in the condition of the cow, and that he uses it without 
addition of turnips or other roots, which 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 
