It can scarcely be expected, nor is it desirable, that practical farmers should apply themselves to the attainment of proficiency in the art of chemical investigations; this is more properly the occupation of the professor of science. The following simple experiment, however, seems worth mentioning. On several occasions, during winter, I procured samples of butter from my next neighbor. On placing these, with a like quantity of my own, in juxtaposition before the fire, my butter melted with far greater rapidity--by no means an unsafe test of a greater proportion of oleine. The chemical investigation of our natural and other grasses has hitherto scarcely had the attention which it deserves. The most valuable information on this subject is in the paper by Professor Way, on the nutritive and fattening properties of the grasses, in vol. xiv., p. 171, of the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal. These grasses were nearly all analyzed at the flowering time, a stage at which no occupier of grass-land would expect so favorable a result in fattening. We much prefer pastures with young grass not more than a few inches high, sufficient to afford a good bite. With a view to satisfy myself as to the difference of composition of the like grasses at different stages of growth, I sent to Professor Way a specimen of the first crop of hay, cut in the end of June, when the grass was in the early stage of flowering, and one of aftermath, cut towards the close of September, from the same meadow, the analyses of which I give: HAY, FIRST CROP. | AFTERMATH HAY Moisture, 12.02 | Moisture, 11.87 Albuminous matter, 9.24 | Oil and fatty matter, 6.84 Oil and fatty matter, 2.68 | Albuminous matter, 9.84 Starch, gum, sugar, 39.75 | Starch, gum, sugar, 42.25 Woody fibre, 27.41 | Woody fibre, 19.77 Mineral matter, 8.90 | Mineral matter, 9.43 ------- | ------- 100.00 | 100.00 A comparison between these will show a much greater percentage of woody fibre,--27.41 in the first crop to 19.77 in the aftermath. The most remarkable difference, however, is in the proportion of oil, being 2.68 in the first crop to 6.84 in the aftermath. On inquiry from an observing tenant of a small dairy farm of mine, who has frequently used aftermath hay, I learn that, as compared with the first crop, he finds it induces a greater yield of milk, but attended with some impoverishment in the condition of the cow, and that he uses it without addition of turnips or other roots, which he gives when using hay of the first crop--an answer quite in accordance with what might be expected from its chemical composition.