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which it is desirable to feed, and, in Director Stubbs's opinion, this 

 amount should be led up to graduall3^ He notes that only bright yel- 

 low cotton-seed meal of a nutty, pleasant odor and taste should be 

 used, and that no reddish or musty meal should be fed. It is stated 

 that excessive quantities of cotton-seed meal should be avoided, since 

 it is a very concentrated feed. It should be gradually added to a 

 ration, carefull}^ mixed with other feeds, until mules learn to relish it, 

 and no uneaten residues should be allowed to ferment in the feed boxes. 

 The cereal grains, ground and unground, commercial by-products, 

 leguminous seeds, oil cakes, and similar products are very frequently 

 called concentrated feeds, the name being suggested by the fact that, 

 generally speaking, the food value, especially the protein content, is 

 high in comparison with the bulk. So far as the general experience 

 and the results of American and foreign feeding experiments go, most 

 of the common feeding stuffs in the group are wholesome and valuable 

 for horses. If any one of these feeding stuff's is substituted for oats, 

 which ma}" be taken for a standard, the substitution should be propor- 

 tional to the composition of the two feeds and not pound for pound. 



FORAGE CROPS, FR^SH AND CURED. 



The various forage crops — grass, clover, Katir corn, corn, etc. — all 

 have a high water content; that is, they are more or less succulent 

 and juicy. They contain, however, considerable nutritive material, 

 usually protein and carbohydrates, and are valuable feeding stuffs. 



The leguminous forage crops — alfalfa, clover, cowpeas, soy beans, 

 vetch, etc. — are richer in protein than the grasses. When the forage 

 crops are dried and cured the resulting ha}^ is richer in proportion to 

 its bulk than the green material; in other words, it has been concen- 

 trated by the evaporation of the greater part of the water present. 

 However, this is not the onl}^ change which has taken place. When 

 hay is properly cured it undergoes a peculiar sort of fermentation or 

 oxidation which materially affects its composition. 



As shown by Holdelieis's " recent investigations, fermentation 

 improves the hay by diminishing the quantity of crude fiber and by 

 increasing the relative amount of other nutrients, especially nitrogen- 

 free extract. The greater the fermentation the more the crude fiber 

 is diminished, and this is especiall}^ marked when hay is dried on 

 racks. Hay which has undergone proper fermentation has a better 

 flavor and agrees better with animals and is apparently more digesti- 

 ble than hay which has dried quickly in the sun without fermentation. 

 Fermentation apparently diminishes the amount of pentosans in hay, 

 especially in the case of hay from grasses. It also seems that the 

 relative amount of true protein is increased. 



«Mitt. Landw. Inst. Univ. Breslan, 1899, p. 59. 



