6 
N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
II. SOME FORAGE PLANTS, GRAINS, SEEDS, AND BY¬ 
PRODUCTS. 
Table II gives the results of recent chemical analyses at this Station 
of various food materials and by-products. These analyses include 
1. Some Cultivated Grasses. —These are a few of our common cul¬ 
tivated grasses recently analyzed at the Station, the samples being 
grown on Capt. B. P. Williamson’s farm and the Experiment farm. 
2. Non-Saccharine and Saccharine Sorghums and Millets. —Analyses 
of the whole plant and parts of plants of some of the non-saccharine, 
or non-sugar producing sorghums, two of the sugar yielding sor¬ 
ghums, and some millets. They are especially rich in nitrogen-free 
extract, and most of them make a good showing in protein and fats 
for plants of these classes. The kaffir corn and millo maize were 
sent to the Station by Mr. Jasper Stowe, Belmont, N. C. The other 
samples were grown on the Experiment farm. 
3. Corn Plant and its Parts, Wheat Bran, and Oat Meal. —Uuder this 
is shown the composition of the whole corn plant, parts of the plant, the 
grain, and meal made from it, and corn silage, together with oat meal, 
and wheat bran. The corn plant and its parts are high in carbohy¬ 
drates, and the pulled fodder, or corn leaves, whole grains, and corn 
meal also contain a good percentage of protein and fats. Oat meal 
and wheat bran are more nitrogenous foods than the corn plant or 
any of its parts, and are very valuable and nutritious foods. Their 
comparative composition can be seen from the table. 
J. Leguminous Plants. —The composition of leguminous plants is 
shown. They will be noticed to be especially rich in protein or the 
“flesh formers,” containing a far larger proportion of these bodies 
than do any of the preceding classes of plants Those in this class 
making the best showing in this respect are soja bean, crimson clover, 
lucerne, and cowpea-vines. As the protein compounds are estimated 
by the nitrogen content of plants, columns for total nitrogen in 
original and water-free substances have been inserted in this and 
the other tables of compositions that comparisons of different plants 
and classes of plants may be made in their content of this element. 
It is now well established that the clovers, cowpea, peanut, and other 
leguminous or pod-bearing plants have the powder of utilizing the 
free nitrogen of the atmosphere in the growth and building up of 
their structures. Most of these plants, it will be seen, contain as 
much, and some of them more, nitrogen than a great many of the 
commercial fertilizers applied to the land to increase plant growth, 
and inasmuch as nitrogen is nearly three times the costliest element 
of these fertilizers and a constituent of the most costly and valuable 
compounds (protein bodies) in plants for animal production, con¬ 
nected with the fact that the other classes of agricultural plants do 
not possess as do the leguminous ones thi$ power of appropriating 
