| Water | 84·78 |
| Albuminous matters | 2·18 |
| Fatty matters | 0·56 |
| Starch, gum, &c. | 6·08 |
| Woody fibre | 5·10 |
| Mineral matter | 1·30 |
The grasses, natural and artificial, are occasionally affected by a formidable and well-known fungus, the ergot. Italian rye-grass is the most liable to the ravages of this pest, and there are on record several cases in which ergotted rye-grass proved fatal to the animal fed upon it. Clover and the various leguminous plants appear more liable to the ergot disease than the natural grasses (except rye-grass), but I have on several occasions noticed this fungus on the spikelets of Hordeum pratense, Festuca pratense, and Bromus erectus. It has also been noticed that rye-grass rapidly developed under the influence of liquid manure is so rank that young animals fed upon it are poisonously affected. Alderman Mechi states that in July, 1864, ten out of his thirty Shorthorn calves died in consequence of eating the heads of Italian rye-grass, and that the survivors' health was seriously injured. He was also unfortunate with his lambs, which, during the same month, were folded on Italian rye-grass. "Four days ago," writes the Alderman, "it was sewaged, having been prior to the former growth also guanoed. In four days it had grown from four to five inches, was of an intense green, and pronounced to be, by sharp practical men, just the food for lambs. Well, we put on our lambs, taking care to do so in the evenings after they had been well fed. My bailiff accompanied them, and, within five minutes, turning accidentally round, he saw two of the lambs with their heads in the air staggering (stomach staggers it is called) and frothing at the mouth. He immediately saw the mischief, removed the lambs, and on their way back to a bare fold some of them vomited the Italian rye-grass that they had just eaten, accompanied by frothy slime; others brought it up during the night. Some of them trembled, gaped, and showed all the same symptoms that my calves had done, such as rapid pulse, &c. Two or three of them are rather queer to-day. I hope that Professor Simmonds or some capable person will tell us how this is? If we mow this grass, bring it home, and cut it into chaff, all which tends to heat or dry it, it becomes wholesome food. The same remarks apply in degree to very succulent tares. If the Italian grass is brought home and given long and quite fresh to the calves, it will kill them. It does not appear to injure old ewes as it does lambs or shearlings. The dry weather has something to do with it. In wet weather the evil is much diminished, or disappears."
It is probable that the juice of this poisonous herbage was extremely rich in matters only semi-organised, and perhaps abounded in the crude substances from which the vegetable tissues are elaborated. Such rank grass as this was should not be used until it has attained to a tolerably developed state: in mature plants the juices contain more highly organised matters than are found in young vegetables.
The Sorghuo, or Holcus Saccharatus.—This plant, introduced to the notice of the British farmer but a few years ago, is only grown in these countries in small quantities. It is very rich in sugar, and cattle relish it greatly. Its composition, according to Dr. Voelcker, is as follows:—
| Water | 81·80 |
| Albuminous matters | 1·53 |
| Insoluble ditto | 0·66 |
| Sugar | 5·85 |
| Wax and fatty matter | 2·55 |
| Mucilage, pectin, and digestible matters | 2·59 |
| Indigestible woody fibre | 4·03 |
| Mineral matter | 0·99 |
| ——— | |
| 100·00 |
The plants referred to in the above analysis were cut in September. It is found that the composition of the plant is very different at different seasons.
Green Rye is employed as a forage crop, for which purpose it is well adapted. It is about equal in nutritive power to clover. According to Dr. Voelcker its composition is as follows:—
| Water | 75·423 |
| Flesh-formers | 2·705 |
| Fatty matter | 0·892 |
| Gum, pectin, sugar, &c. | 9·134 |
| Woody-fibre | 10·488 |
| Mineral matter | 1·358 |
| ——— | |
| 100·000 |
Buckwheat is occasionally cut in a green state and used as food for stock. Its composition, according to Einhof and Crome, is as follows:—