ANIMAL GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 267 



a great deal of what I charge to it ; and then it still has 

 another value as an absorbent under the cattle, and it makes 

 a clean bed to lie upon. So that I think I charge less than I 

 might be entitled to charge in that way. 



Question. If you should cut up your corn-fodder fine, 

 and put Indian meal with it, so that they would eat it all, 

 would it be good for any thing ? 



Mr. Sanborn. If they ate it, it would be of some value ; 

 but the part they do not eat is of the least value. The stalk 

 is not so valuable at the bottom as at the top. It is not all 

 •eaten up when it comes out of the silo. I have seen ensilage 

 where it was not all eaten up. I went to one place where it 

 was claimed that it was all eaten up clean, and saw that there 

 was considerable left. The man claimed that it was injured, 

 and I presume it was. 



Question. Mr. Ware quoted Professor Goessmann as say- 

 ing that English hay, if it were wet two or three times, lost 

 fifty per cent. Now, in drying our corn-fodder, it will usually 

 stand out from twenty to thirty days before it will get suffi- 

 ciently dry to put in the barn; and in that time it will receive 

 several rains, sometimes hard ones. Will not that corn-fod- 

 der Ipse quite a percentage of its nutritive value ? 



Mr. Sanborn. There are several things to be said about 

 that. The corn-stalks do not get wet, except on the outside. 

 The water runs down on the outside of the stack : it does 

 not soak into it very thoroughly ; and, when the water evapo- 

 rates, it does not carry with it any organic matter. Again : 

 fifty per cent must be an extraordinary loss ; for I was read- 

 ing very recently an account of a German experiment, where 

 hay was allowed to stand two weeks through an almost con- 

 tinual rain, and the loss was inside of thirty per cent. It was 

 put out on purpose, and allowed to be drenched through by a 

 continuous rain of two weeks (I think that was the time) ; 

 and the result was, it lost only about twentv-seven per cent. 



Question. Does it not make a difference whether the 

 hay is late cut or early ciit ? 



Mr. Sanborn. Yes, sir. If the hay is later cut, it will 

 lose less. It grows less in green weight as the plant matures. 

 The sap, in the process of transition in the stalk, carries with 

 it the nutrition which is taken up in the seed and organized 

 in the plant. Theoretically, I say, it will lose less ten days 

 after blooming than two or three days before blooming. 



