350 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
7 
11. Hay of Beach-pea vines gathered at Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, 
Maine, July 16, 1873. The plants were growing at a point where 
the shingle of the beach joins the earth of the upland. They 
seemed to be better situated as regards their supply of food than the 
plants of Nos. 10 and 12. This sample was dried in the open air, 
and afterwards kept in a loft, like No. 10. 
12. Hay of Beach-pea vines from a low sand dune on north shore 
of Nonamesett Island, Buzzard’s Bay, Mass., gathered 28 August, 
1873. This sample was dried in the open air and afterward stored, 
like the others. A tolerably large proportion of the sample consisted 
of rather young shoots, but there were many older stalks also. 
The composition of these seven specimens will appear from the 
table on page 851:— 
For the sake of ready comparison, the average composition of all 
the hays above described (as determined by the foregoing analyses) is 
given in the general table on page 352. 
A table such as this, based solely upon analyses of the hays, though 
valuable in enabling us to contrast the composition of the several kinds 
enumerated with that of the ordinary hays and straws, previously 
examined by chemists, cannot of course settle the question as to the 
fodder value of the salt and fresh hays with that certainty that may 
be gained by a combination of the analytical method with practical 
experiments in foddering animals. By feeding several animals upon 
hay (and other matters) whose composition has been precisely deter- 
mined by analysis, and estimating from day to day, during a consider- 
able interval of time, the amounts of each ingredient of the fodder 
that are discarded undigested, that is to say unused, in the excrements 
of the animals, and observing how much the animals lose or gain in 
flesh meanwhile, the real value of any kind of fodder, and of its several 
components, may be determined with a considerable degree of accuracy. 
But such trials necessarily consume a great deal of time and labor; 
and, until they shall have been made, the most trustworthy opinions as 
to the worth of salt and fresh hay that can be formed will have to be 
based upon the evidence now accessible; namely, that furnished by 
analysis on the one hand, and by the records of farming experience 
upon the other. Before proceeding to discuss the testimony last 
