12 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
N-Pree 
Dry Matter. Ash. Fat. Protein. Fibre. Extract. 
Alfalfa . 62.05 57.67 29.86 72.54 49.93 72.89 
Timothy hay . 51.03 65.63 69.32 43.35 ■ 36.08 54.99 
Native hay . 50.53 42.52 20.55 62.33 ' 55.56 51.30 
Oat hay, average.... 49.30 34.60 54.20 43.50 52.00 61.90 
Saltbush hay 
(A. semibaccata) . . 60.48 59.64 24.46 84.65 27.30 63.83 
It will be observed that the composition of the saltbush com¬ 
pares very favorably with that of our best fodders. The proteids 
are high, especially in the South Dakota sample and the one used in 
our digestion experiments, 18.87 cent, in the former and 20.60 
per cent, in the latter. While the nitrogen free extract is lower than 
in the hay made from grasses it is quite as high as in the leguminous 
hays, alfalfa, or pea-vine hay. The crude fibre is low and the ash 
exceptionally high. The proteids present are not only high in per¬ 
centage, but they also have a very high coefficient of digestion— 
84 . 65 —which is, I believe, a higher coefficient than has been found 
for the proteids in any other hay and which has been approached 
in the case of but few hays. The ash is present in large quantities 
and is highly digestible, as one would expect, because it consists 
very largely of alkali salts. No apparent inconvenience was caused 
the sheep by the ingestion of these large amounts of ash con¬ 
stituents, except in the early part of our first feeding experiment, 
when the saltbush was fed green, but in this case the trouble was of 
short duration and did not recur. The crude fibre is not very 
abundant and has a low coefficient of digestion. 
In spite of all of these good points the results of our two 
experiments with sheep indicate that the saltbush, when fed alone, 
will just maintain the animal. The results were the same whether 
it was fed green or in the form of hay. The leaves are not greedily 
eaten by the sheep; perhaps the very large amount of ash constit¬ 
uents present in them has something to do with this. There would 
seem to be no question but that in order to get the best effects out of 
a fodder containing 20 per cent, of protein it should be mixed with 
another poorer in nitrogenous substances. 
This plant is supposed to grow particularly well on alkali soils. 
I found that it does well on soils which are considered as free from 
alkali, but remarkable differences seem to exist in the composition 
of the plant and also in that of the ash. The samples 1 / to 4 in¬ 
clusive were gathered from the same plot of ground; the soil varied, 
and we find that the proteid content varies by five per cent. Again, 
one of the California samples contained ii 164 per cent., while the 
South Dakota sample carried 18.87 cent., and our last sample 
used in the digestion experiment contained 20.60 per cent., an ex¬ 
treme difference of 11.90 per cent., which, I believe, to indicate 
