New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 
419 
The hays having the largest albuminoid contents are also the most 
digestible, and this places the timothy from Wisconsin first in feeding 
value. We should expect that feeding experiments made with such 
hay would give results quite different from those obtained from the 
use of hay like that grown at this Station in 1886, or that from Maine. 
The Wisconsin hay has a " feeding ratio," for the dry substance, of 
1:9.7, and that from this Station 1:19.3, differences so great that 
opposite conclusions might be reached by two experimentors using 
these hays in comparative feeding experiments. 
Partial analyses of the ash from each of the several timothies were 
made, but since the results are tabulated elsewhere they need not be 
repeated here, for these analyses do not show the real differences that 
are made manifest when the ash constituents are calculated upon the 
water-free hays as is given in the next table, together with the per 
cent of nitrogen. 
TIMOTHIES. 
Phosphoric 
acid, P 2 O g 
Potash. 
K 2 0. 
Soda. 
Na 2 O. 
Nitrogen. N. 
From WiscoDsin, 1886 
0.327 
1.593 
0.084 
1.40 
Maine, 1885 
0.232 
0.831 
0.266 
1.21 
Maine, 1886 
0.246 
0.728 
0.209 
0.93 
Station, 1886 
0.179 
1.097 
0.066 
0.75 
Station, 1887 
0.385 
1.702 
0.292 
1.30 
An inspection of the last table shows even greater differences in the 
ash constituents of the several hays than were found in the albuminoid 
content. This is especially true of the potash, for the hay from Maine 
for 1886 has less than half the amount that either of the other hays 
contain. 
It is hoped that other samples of timothy may be secured and this 
interesting question of variation traced out until the real difference* 
for locality shall have been determined. 
COMPOSITION OF FOKAGE PLANTS. 
1. Cactus or Prickly Pear. 
2. Prickly Comfrey. 
Among the forage plants which have been analyzed during the year, 
two deserve some notice from the importance which they may be made 
to assume in stock husbandry in the near future, one among ranch- 
men at the south, the other in the more closely cultivated regions of 
the north; the first, the prickly pear, growing extensively in the dry 
arid regions of the southwest; the other, prickly comfrey, which seems 
