EFFECT OF NITROGENOUS FERTILIZERS. 135 
It will be noticed that there are considerable differences in 
the proportions of protein in the different grasses grown under 
similar conditions. Of the three grasses, timothy, orchard 
grass, and meadow fescue, which have been under the experi- 
ment longest, orchard grass contained the largest proportion : 
of protein on all the plots, and timothy the smallest on all the 
plots except the one without fertilizer. As observed on a 
later page, in the experiments with corn, the crops from the 
“nothing” plots usually contained a larger proportion 
of protein than the crop from some of the fertilized 
plots. This is doubtless accounted for, as in the experiments 
referred to, by the fact that where no fertilizers are used the 
crop ripens prematurely, in which case the amount of starch 
formed is less than in the matured crops, consequently the 
proportion of protein iound is large. 
In all cases, the lowest percentage of protein was found 
in the crops from the plots upon which only mineral fertilizers 
were used. he average proportion of protein for all the 
grasses irom the mineral plots was 7.39 per cent.; from the 
plots upon which 25 pounds of nitrogen per acre was used, the 
average proportion of protein in all the grasses was 9.72 per 
cent. ;-irom the plots upon which 75 pounds of nitrogen per 
acre was used the proportion of protein was 12.49 per cent. 
his means that, on the average, the grasses grown from the 
plots upon which the one-third ration of nitrogen was used in 
addition to the minerals were 32 per cent. richer in protein 
than those grown on the mineral plots; and the grasses grown 
on the plots upon which the full ration of nitrogen was used 
in addition to the minerals were nearly 7o per cent. richer in 
protein than those grown on the mineral plots. These ex- 
periments emphasize most forcibly the fact that great im- 
provement can be made in the feeding value of our common 
grasses by the proper use of nitrogenous fertilizers. 
Effect upon the Composition of Corn.— In the experiments 
with corn, samples of both the grain and the stover were taken 
separately for analysis. These were gathered at the time when. 
the crop was weighed in the field, just before it was harvested. 
Large samples of the stover were gathered in much the same 
way as the samples of hay were taken. Small quantities of 
_ Stover were taken from different parts of the plot, and were 
immediately cut into short lengths and sub-sampled. From 
10 to 15 pounds of the ears were taken for samples; these were 
shelled and the weight of shelled corn in the samples was 
