BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 47 
Curiously enough, the chemical evidence goes to show that it is for 
feeding animals rather than for feeding plants that sawdust might be 
put to use. It has, in fact, been shown practically by the experiments 
of Stoeckhardt* and his pupils, that fresh sawdust, even that of pine- 
trees, can be used with advantage as fodder, in times of dearth, and 
there is every reason to believe that, poor as it unquestionably is, it 
could ordinarily be employed in a great variety of cases for maintain- 
ing animals, if it were carefully sifted to remove splinters, and used in 
conjunction with other kinds of foods, in the same sense that straw is 
now used as a component of many mixtures of fodders. 
Twigs and leaves, especially when the latter are young, stand, of 
course, in a very different category from sawdust. The young and 
growing parts of plants are, comparatively speaking, rich both in ash 
ingredients and in nitrogen, and are known to be valuable both for 
fodder and for manure. From the tables above cited, it appears that 
100 pounds of beech-clippings obtained in August, contained, when 
dry, nearly one pound (0.88) of real potash and a third of a pound of 
phosphoric acid ; while, as Steeckhardt fT has shown, the amount of nitro- 
gen in such twigs and leaves is decidedly high. In a great variety of 
samples of twigs and leaves from different kinds of trees, Stoeckhardt 
found the proportion of nitrogen in the dried material to range from 
1.28 to 2.84%, which is equal to from 8 to 173% of albuminoids; a 
result which is not a little striking, in view of the fact that good hay 
contains on the average no more than 1.6% of nitrogen, or 10% of 
albuminoids. ‘Twigs and leaves, such as the clippings ‘of vines and 
hedges, or bushes mown in pastures, are undoubtedly valuable both as 
forage and as manure. ‘They are manifestly very much better than 
either straw or sawdust for feeding animals and for making composts. 
For that matter, the use of browse as cattle food has long been a 
prominent feature in the husbandry of some southern countries, such 
as Italy.t It was clearly recognized by the early settlers of this coun- 
try, and is still a resource for the backwoodsman in many districts. 
Autumn leaves and the rakings of woodland, which consist for 
* In his “ Chemische Ackersmann,” 1860, 6. 51; 1861, 7. pp. 178, 184, and 
1869, 15. pp. 118, 189. Compare “N. E. Farmer,” 1832, 11. 164. 
tT In his “ Chemische Ackersmann,” 1866, 12. 49. 
t Even Cato, in his De Re Rustica, at the end of chapter v., enjoins upon 
the farmer to “lop the leafy twigs of poplars, elms, and oaks, and to store them 
for a time, without too much drying, for sheep fodder.” 
