8 Colorado Experiment Station. 
was nearly covered. A part of the crop was cut twice, yielding 
at the rate of four tons of hay per acre.” This is a very modest 
yield compared with those indicated by some of the correspondents, 
which would figure out at least one-half more. This may all be 
interpreted when applied to our conditions that the saltbush may 
be expected to yield a large crop of hay per acre provided the 
stand is good. 
. ‘ The composition of the crop of 1900 is given in the follow¬ 
ing table: 
COMPOSITION OE SALTBUSH (A. scmibaccata) hay. 
N-Free 
Moisture. 
Ash. 
Fat. 
Protein. 
Fibre. Extract. 
Sample 
1 
. 6.16 
17.90 
1.18 
13.21 
23.79 37.76 
Sample 
2 
. 7.94 
19.48 
1.09 
13.70 
24.34 33.45 
Sample 
3 
. 8.34 
17.02 
1.17 
9.41 
28.31 35.75 
Sample 
4 
. 8.45 
15.07 
1.12 
8.70 
28.00 38.66 
For 
the leaves and stems we obtained the 
following: 
N-Free 
Moisture. 
Ash. 
Fat. 
Protein. 
Fibre. Extract. 
Leaves 
. 6.42 
24.29 
1.66 
15.92 
8.99 42.72 
Stems 
. 5.25 
8.75 
0.72 
6.46 
44.67 34.15 
The ratio of leaves to stems in a sample grown in 1906, which 
we may assume to be representative, was 8.6 to 6.5, or in round 
numbers, 60 per cent, leaves and 40 per cent, stems, according to 
which an average hay should contain about 12.2 per cent, proteids 
based on the analyses of leaves and stems given above, but the 
average percentage of protein indicated by the analyses of the four 
samples of hay is 11.26 per cent. This average is probably too 
low, owing to the low percentage of this constituent in samples 
three and four, both of which contain about or even less than 
one-half the amount of proteids found in later samples. 
The four analyses, as previously indicated, serve to show how 
this hay may vary in quality even from the same field when no 
other condition than the variation in soil conditions can be appealed 
to as suggesting a plausible explanation; this is apparently a suffi' 
cient cause for the lack of uniformity in the published analyses 
of this hay, which is evident from the following, which are all of 
such analyses that I have been able to find: 
N-Free 
Moisture. 
Ash. 
Fat. 
Protein. 
Fibre. Extract. 
Arizona Rep. 1903 
. 6.30 
17.90 
2.11 
14.13 
20.75 
38.81 
California Bulletin 
125.. 7.05 
19.37 
2.01 
11.64 
15.88 
44.05 
California Bulletin 
125. .10.00 
17.74 
1.47 
14.14 
20.18 
36.54 
South Dakota Bui. 
69... 7.40 
13.09 
2.05 
18.87 
25.97 
32.62 
In our analyses of the samples grown in 1900, we notice a 
variation of five per cent, in the protein content, but an extreme of 
