— i6 ■— 
Crude fiber in third cutting alfalfa hay:— 
Per cent. 
1. Hay.28.89 
2. “ . 37-39 
3 - “ . 34-91 
Average.33-7° 
As already remarked, the results, especially of the lab¬ 
oratory samples for the first and second cuttings, show an 
increase in the crude fiber as the plant matures, but there is 
a considerable variation in the samples, with a few apparent 
contradictions, which is to be explained by differences un¬ 
der which the samples were grown and taken. The deter¬ 
minations were made in duplicate, and sometimes in tripli¬ 
cate, or until we were satisfied that the difference in the re¬ 
sults was in the sample and not in the analyst’s work. 
From the beginning of bloom to half bloom, the increase is 
not very rapid and the averages obtained for the hays of 
different cuttings are nearly equal, at least not so far apart 
as public judgment assumes; for the first, 35.21 per cent.; 
for the second, 34.15 per cent, (laboratory sample), 34-47 
per cent, (farm sample); and for the third cutting, 37.01 per 
cent. ; 33.70 per cent., three samples of hay from the farm 
department. 
FAT OR ETHER EXTRACT. 
We find in our laboratory samples a considerable varia¬ 
tion in the amount of fat. If the differences be expressed 
in terms of the total fat found, they are large; but if in per 
cent, of the sample, they are constant. In twenty samples 
of alfalfa hay, but one yielded as much as 2 per cent, 
or more of fat soluble in ether, and only one below 1.1 
per cent., with the average equal to 1.539 per cent. In the 
case of the farm samples, though our results on the dupli¬ 
cates were satisfactory, there is no concordance when the 
series of samples is taken as a whole, one sample falling as 
low as .86 percent., and another in the same sub-series giv¬ 
ing 2.76 per cent.; and still another 4.20 per cent. We have 
been unable to discover any reason for such variations in the 
farm series itself and quite as unable to find out why the 
two series should be so different. If we neglect the sam¬ 
ples of first cutting hay in the farm series and take the 
samples representing the second and third cuttings, the 
average for the fat is, 1.641 per cent.; while the average fat 
content of the twenty laboratory samples is, 1.539 per cent., 
with most of them quite close to the average. 
The fat as determined in the sample in full seed is, 
doubtlessly, too low (1.03 per cent.) for the reason that any 
