APPENDIX. 
In the preceding pages I have given the general re¬ 
sults of our study of the development of the alfalfa plant, 
mostly in numbers based upon hay, because this is die con¬ 
dition with which the average reader is most familiar, and 
the details of the preparation of samples, so far as there is 
any need of their being given at all, have been given ; but 
there are some details deserving of mention and yet of 
less interest to the public than the general discussion 
Some of these may find place here, together with the tabu¬ 
lated results based upon thoroughly dry material. 
PREPARATION OF THE SAMPLES. 
The samples of hay were prepared with the 
utmost care in order that the samples should represent tht 
best grade of hay possible to be prepared from plants ii 
that stage of development. They were protected from un 
due exposure to sun, wind and rain ; in fact, they were 
cured in muslin sacks and brought into the laboratory 
whenever there was any rain and during the night; so tha 
they were not exposed to the effects of dew or moisture 
other than the hygroscopic changes in the atmosphere 
itself. We found that the protection from blowing sane 
and from loss of leaves due to the wind and drying of tlr 
plants was absolutely necessary in order to have ou 
samples represent the plant as it actually was at the tim< 
of cutting. The sand found in the analyses of plant ashe 
is partly accounted for, in our cases, by its being blow: 
upon the plant during the preparation of the sample ; sonr 
of it, however, is lodged in the axils of the leaves an< 
stems, or even driven into their tissues by the winds. Thi 
method was very tedious, requiring as many as ten day.‘ 
even in this climate, to get some samples to a cpnstan 
weight. A few experiments were made to determine th 
