| |
water | 1.25 | 0.98| 0.44| 0.06| 0.42| 0.30
_b._ Insoluble in | | | | | |
water | 1.26 | 1.40| 1.41| 1.90| 1.00| 1.76
Oil | 1.22 | 1.13| 1.14| 0.90| 1.17| 1.08
Sugar, gum, and other | | | | | |
fat-forming matters | 4.18 | 3.98| 3.88| 4.08| 3.89| 4.30
Woody fibre | 75.84 | 76.17| 77.76| 78.67| 79.18| 77.15
Mineral matter (ash) | 3.25 | 3.19| 3.23| 3.51| 3.12| 3.29
+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| 100.00 | 100.00| 100.00| 100.00| 100.00| 100.00
-----------------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------

The results of these analyses are somewhat different from those arrived
at by Voelcker and Anderson. They show that properly harvested Irish
oat and wheat straws are far more valuable than those of Scotland, and
somewhat less nutritive than those produced in England. They also
show that wheat-straw is allowed to over-ripen, by which a very large
proportion of its nutritive principles is eliminated and altogether
lost, and a considerable part of the remainder converted into an
insoluble, and therefore less easily digestible state. Nor is there any
advantage to the grain gained by allowing it to remain uncut after the
upper portion of the stem has changed from a green to a yellowish color;
on the contrary, it also loses a portion--often a very considerable
one--of its nitrogenous, or flesh-forming constituents. It has been
clearly proved that wheat cut when green, yields a greater amount of
grain, and of a better quality too, than when it is allowed to ripen
fully; yet, how often do we not see fields of wheat in this country
allowed to remain unreaped for many days, and even weeks, after the
crop has attained to its full development!

The oat-straw obtained in the Dublin Market proved less valuable than
the green straw which I selected myself from a field of oats; but the
discrepancy between them was far less than between the nearly ripe
wheat-straw and the straw of that plant purchased in Dublin. During
visits which I have paid in harvest-time to the North of Ireland, I
noticed that the oats were generally cut whilst green, whereas wheat was
almost invariably left standing for at least a week after its perfect
m