OCR Text |
Show 138 grasses, and wool- growing is indeed the best business that could be devised for the utilization of these prairies, the absence of water in most cases forbidding farming. Of late, wool- growing has reached great dimensions in New Mexico, and is still on the increase. In 1874 the wool brought by ox- teams to the termini of the railroads iu Southern Colorado, Las Animas, and Grenada aggregated the enormous quantity of one and a half million pounds. Three kinds of grasses were analyzed, viz : 1. Festuca ovina, ( determined by Dr. Vasey,) from an altitude of 10,000 feet, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico. This grass covered chiefly the mountain- valleys of this region. I found it also on Sierra Blanca, Mount Taylor, and the Santa F6 range. It gave in air- dry state the following result, viz: Water 12.3 Ash 5.4 Fiber 30.2 Fat 1.5 Aqueous extract, ( of which 0.07 is sugar) 12.2 Sugar formed on digestion with dilute hydrochloric acid , 10. 6 Extracted by potassa and loss 27.6 100.0 2. Boutcloua ohjgostachya, collected September 7, in the Abiquiu Mountains, at an altitude of 7,500 feet: Water 12.0 Ash 7.8 Fiber 24.4 Fat 2.4 Aqueous extract, ( 0.08 sugar) 14.1 Sugar formed on digestion with dilute hydrochloric acid 22.2 Extracted by dilute potassa and loss 17.1 100.0 3. Bonteloua hirsute the mesqnite or buffalo- grass, collected near Las Vegas November 16, at an altitude of 6,500 feet. This grass, dried up and cared in the ground, had lost the green color and turned yellow ; but, notwithstanding the exposure of this dead vegetation to atmospheric influences, it retained all its nutritive properties, as revealed by the analysis. The air- dry grass gave: Water 13.0 Ash ' 6.5 Fiber 19.1 Fat 2.1 Aqueous extract, ( 0.09 sugar) 13.*? Sugar formed on digestion with dilute hydrochloric acid 26.3 Extracted by dilute potassa and loss 19.2 100.0 The fiber obtained from the last species of grass was exceedingly fine and short, while that of the other two species was coarse and much thicker. On comparison, we find the mesquite is much richer in sugar- yielding material than are the others, and that the amount of fiber, or indigestible material, is smaller. This grass, as regards nutritive qualities, far excels the tall mountain- grasses, such as Festuca and Bromus, of either of which a much larger bulk has to be eaten by the animal to maintain the equilibrium of the system. Further, it appears also to surpass the" grasses growing in less dry climates, as New Mexico. Until now grasses have been analyzed only in Germany; hence, we can compare only with German grasses. On doing so we find the fiber of some of the best of the latter to be 21.7 per cent., or 2.6 per cent, higher than that of the mesquite grass. If we compare the amount or fiber in the three species analyzed as above, we find it increases with the altitude, or, better expressed, perhaps, with the increased relative humidity of the air. It would appear as though the dry climate retards the transmutation of the gum and sugar into cellulose, an observation which appears to be confirmed by the grasses of New Mexico, these being exceedingly rich in sugar. With regard to the fat in the grasses, it hardly exceeds 3 per cent., although it is an important element in nutrition ; subtracting the water, ash, and fiber from the total composition of the grasses, the relative proportion of nitrogenized to non- nitrogenized bodies is about 1 to 6. It is also of interest, in connection with the organic composition of grasses, to know tho composition of the inorganic constituents, the ashes of these plants, although our |