406 
Report of the Assistant Chemist of the 
gluten — which remains on washing the dough from wheat flour and 
animal muscle are common examples of this class of products. 
Not all of the nitrogenous matter of feeding stuffs is in the form of 
albuminoids, but often a considerable portion is in what may be termed 
a transitory state known by the general name amides. Amides are 
supposed to have a less nutritive value than the true albuminoids. 
However, they probably have a greater nutritive value than many 
experimenters have assigned to them. 
Crude fiber is the woody portion of vegetable matter which is unacted 
upon by dilute acids or alkalies. Crude fiber has little or no direct 
nutritive value to the animal. 
Nitrogen-free extract, sometimes called carbohydrates, is a mixture of 
various substances. The starches, sugars, dextrine, pectic and muci- 
laginous bodies, gums, etc., are the principal constituents. 
Fat. — The ether extract of feeding stuffs, taken as fat or vegetable 
oils, is a mixture of oils, wax, coloring matter, etc. Cotton seed oil, 
linseed oil, corn oil, etc., are common examples. 
VARIATION IN THE COMPOSITION OF GRASSES FOR 
TWO YEARS. 
In my report for 1886* I noted the variation in the chemical compo- 
sition of grasses for different cuttings of the same season, showing 
that the proportion of albuminoids to the other organic constituents 
of the plant was much larger in the second and subsequent cuttings 
than in the first. Another year gives us an opportunity to determine 
what variation there may be in the chemical composition of grasses 
for different years when grown under like conditions, so far as soil 
and locality are concerned. With the exception of the timothy, the 
grasses were all from the Station grass plats for both years and were 
collected at about the same stage of growth, that is, full bloom. The 
timothy was taken both years from the same place, in a large field. It 
may be well to state here that early in the spring of 1886 all of the 
grass plats received a top-dressing of acid phosphate, but none was 
applied to the field of timothy. The following table gives the chemi- 
cal composition of the grasses for both years : 
*New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1886, p. 374. 
