rf 
BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 853 
named, it will be well to interpolate a table of the average composition 
of hay and straw, as determined by European chemists.* 
Name of the Plant, 
Carbohydrates, 
including Fat. 
Dry Organic 
Albuminoids. 
Cellulose. 
Meadow Hay 
Rowen... . 
Wheat Straw . 
Rye Straw 
Barley Straw 
Oat Straw : 
Pea Straw. oe a 
Pea Hay (cutin blossom) | 16.70 
Hay of the Fodder-Vetch, 
orTare . . | 14.90 
The relatively large proportion of water reported in analyses of 
European hays and straws of course makes it somewhat less easy than 
could be wished to compare the figures in the above table with those 
of the table previously given on page 352. It will nevertheless be 
seen at a glance, on contrasting the two tables, that the proportion of 
albuminoids in meadow hay (7.e., “ English hay”) is decidedly larger 
than it is in the salt hays and the bog hays, and that the proportion of 
cellulose is decidedly smaller. With regard to the straws, on the con- 
trary, the reverse of this is true. The proportion of carbohydrates 
also is in almost every instance much smaller in the straws than in the 
bog and salt hays. It is plain, in short, that the chemical composition 
of the bog and salt-marsh hays is much more nearly related to that 
of true meadow hay than it is to the composition of straw. 
double purpose of saving the fodder which the young stalks afford and of pre- 
venting the weed from spreading. A somewhat similar remark would apply of 
course to fields that are overrun with buttercups. 
* The items in this table are copied from the elaborate work of Dietrich and 
Kenig, entitled “Zusammensetzung und Verdaulichkeit der Futterstoffe,” 
Berlin (Springer), 1874. 
t The percentage of albuminoids ranged from 14.2 to 20.4 in the samples from 
which this average was taken. If the average percentage of water in the sam- 
ples had been 7.8, instead of 14.9 as above, the percentage of albuminoids would 
have been from 15} to 22, very much like the beach-pea (see page 851). 
VOL. I. 45 
