462 Keport of the Assistant Chemist of the 
METHODS OF ANALYSES. 
The regular method of analysis pursued has been the same as that 
described by Dr. Babcock,* while the method of digestion given in 
the Station report for 1885 has been followed. The determination of 
sugars and starch in feeding stuffs has been made as follows: 
Sugars. 
Five grams of substance are brought upon a filter and washed with 
water until the filtrate amounts to 200 cc. Ten cubic centimeters (0.25 
gram substance) of this solution are taken, and the sugar determined 
by Fehling's solution. This gives the invert sugar, glucose, etc., or 
water soluble extractive matter capable of reducing copper. 
Another portion of the filtrate is heated on the water-bath for one- 
half hour with a few drops of HC1., then neutralized with sodium car- 
bonate, and the sugar determined by Fehling's solution, as in the 
previous case. The difference between the two determinations gives 
the amount from sucrose, or water soluble matter inverted by HC1. 
Starch. 
Five grams of the substance are put in a flask of 250 cc. capacity, 
150 cc. of distilled water, and four to five cc. of concentrated HC1. added, 
and the flask closed by a cork carrying a small glass tube about three and 
one-half feet in length, which acts as a condensor. The flask is theD 
put in a water bath kept at 100° C, for twelve hours, which time seems 
to be sufficient to invert the starch. The flask is allowed to stand over 
night ; the solution is then filtered off, and the filtrate made alkaline by 
sodium carbonate, and the washing continued until the filtrate amounts 
to 200 cc. The sugar is then determined in 10 cc. of the filtrate, by 
Fehling's solution, and the starch calculated from the sugar, or better, 
by reading directly from a plotted chart the amount of starch for the 
permanganate solution required. 
The ash from a considerable number of feeding stuffs has been 
more or less fully analyzed, especially as regards the fertilizing 
constituents, and the method pursued was as follows: 
Ash Analyses. 
The substance for ash analysis is burned in the same manner as for 
ash determination in fodder analysis, at low heat, then thoroughly 
pulverized in an agate mortar and preserved in well-stoppered bottles 
until wanted for analysis. 
Solutions. 
One gram of ash is weighed into a platinum evaporator, and a little 
water added, then a small glass funnel is inverted in the evaporator 
and HC1. cautiously added until effervescence ceases, then a few drops 
* Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1883, p. 166. 
