New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 441 
We find that the digestibility of wheat and bran has also been 
considerably diminished by keeping, and while we have made no 
further investigations as to other changes or digestibility of constit- 
uents other than albuminoids, yet from previous experiments there 
seems good reason for believing that the fats at least would be found 
less digestible in the old grains than in the fresh grains themselves, 
especially if they have been reduced to meal. The amount of fats* 
soluble in either is markedly less in grains eighteen months old than in 
those but a short time from harvesting and freshly ground. 
The insolubility of the oils in ether is due to their oxidation, and it 
seems probable that they would be found also less digestible. Should 
further investigation confirm these trials this would furnish an 
explanation for the decreased value of old hay and grain over that in 
the winter immediately following its harvesting, a fact long recognized 
by the farmer, but often overlooked by the chemist. 
INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZERS UPON THE COMPOSITION OF 
TIMOTHY AND CLOVER. 
In order to study the influence of various fertilizing substances upon 
the composition of grasses, a lot was selected in a field which had 
already been down to grass for five years. This lot was divided into 
twenty-one plats, each ten by fifteen feet, and different fertilizing 
ingredients applied to the several plats, in the proportion indicated by 
the first table. 
There are but few questions of greater importance to the agricul- 
turist, or more difficult of investigation for the agricultural chemist, 
than that for determining the influence of the various fertilizing 
elements through the soil upon the composition and digestibility of 
our feeding stuffs. Few agricultural problems can be more complex, 
and have more influencing factors entering in to modify the results, 
than we find in this line of work. Soil, temperature, rainfall, evapora- 
tion, sunshine, locality, etc., each influences the growth and composi- 
tion of plants, and only after a long series of experiments can any 
investigation in this direction lead to definite conclusions. From this 
year's results we do not expect to be able to settle any mooted ques- 
tions, but rather to add cumulative data, which shall ultimately help 
throw light upon such questions as the influence which the various 
fertilizers, singly and combined, exert in the soil, and through the soil 
upon the plant. 
* See report New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1885, p. 319. 
56 
