AO BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
mannan to sucrose is a fact of general import common to a great 
variety of plants. ‘There are, indeed, numerous detached obser- 
vations, scattered here and there in chemical literature, which 
point to this conclusion. As an example illustrating it may be 
cited the observation of Rongger * who found cane sugar, among 
other things, in the seeds of Picea excelsa and Pinus cembra. 
Numerous observations have shown that mannose is a constant 
constituent of the wood of coniferous trees, while, as has just 
been stated, I have been able to detect no more than traces of it 
in the seeds of Pinus strobus and Picea excelsa. 
There can, moreover, be little doubt that the mannite so fre- 
quently found in various plants is a concomitant of mannan that 
has been stored up in those plants. In support of this view may 
be mentioned the well-known fact that in many instances it is 
only after the vegetable matters have undergone ‘‘ fermentation” 
that mannite has been detected in them. 
What kinds of Woods are capable of Nourishing Animals? 
In the light of the knowledge that the wood of coniferous trees 
may at certain times and seasons contain considerable quantities 
of mannan, which is an approved food for ruminating animals, 
there would seem to be need of studying anew an old and some- 
what disputed, not to say despised question, as to whether or not 
sawdust may have any value as cattle food when used instead of 
straw as an ingredient of rations for maintaining idle animals. 
Reports have several times been made, some years since, by 
German farmers who claimed to have obtained useful, practical 
results on feeding sawdust to neat cattle; while Professor F. 
Lehmann’s f digestion experiments with sheep went to show that 
sawdust is practically indigestible and useless as food for these 
animals. It would be interesting to know what kinds of woods 
were administered to the animals in all these cases and at what 
times in the year the trees had been cut. 
Kellner { found that oxen fed, per head and dry, with 2 kilo. of 
* Die landwirthschaftliche Versuchsstationen, 1898, 51. pp. 89, 93, 94. 
See also E. Schulze, ibid., 1901, 55. 267. 
t ‘Landwirdinee afc Jahrbiicher, 1895, 24. page 115 of Erganzungs- 
band I. Favorable practical results by O. Lehmann are cited in Hoffmann’s 
Jahresbericht, 1893, 36. 340. 
{ Abstract in Biedermann’s Centralblatt fiir Agriculturchemie, 1895, 24. 
164. 
