-----------------------+--------+-------+-------+----------------------- | No. 1. | No. 2.|No. 3. | | Green, | | | Obtained in the Dublin |changing| | | Markets. | to | | Over | | yellow.| Ripe. | Ripe. +----------------------- | County |County |County | | | |Kildare.|Dublin.|Dublin.| No. 4.| No. 5.| No. 6. -----------------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Water | 13·00 | 13·15| 12·14| 10·88| 11·22| 12·12 Flesh-forming | | | | | | principles-- | | | | | | _a._ Soluble in | | | | | | 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!