368 EXPERIMENT STATIOIT RECORD. [Vol. 41 



The grain sorgliums are considered the best feeding stuffs available for the 

 dry-land farmer. 



[Velvet beans for] beef cattle, G. S. Templeton {Alabama Col. Sta. Circ. 40 

 (1919), pp. 24, 25). — A cooperative experiment is reported comparing three 

 methods of preparing velvet beans for steer feeding. Four lots of 15 steers 

 each were fed 117 days beginning December 15, 1917. One lot was given 

 cottonseed meal as a check. Sorghum silage was the only roughage fed. 



It is computed that ,3.07 lbs. of the beans fed dry in the pod, 2.7 lbs. fed in 

 the pod but soaked in water, and 2.16 lbs. of the beans and pods ground into a 

 meal were each equal in feeding value to a pound of cottonseed meal. The 

 charge for grinding the beans was $4.50 per ton, but this operation increased the 

 profit per head $15.G5 over the lot fed the dry beans and $8.G0 over the lot fed 

 the soaked beans. 



Silage as a factor in beef production, W. H., ToMHA^^: {Amcr. Soc. Anim. 

 Prod. Proc. 1916, pp. 158-16Jt). — The author summarizes a series of experiments 

 at the Pennsylvania Experiment Station (E. S. II., 24, p. 269; 30, p. 372; 37, 

 p. 365), in which various amounts of silage were fed to steers, and gives a 

 brief account of changes in methods of cattle feeding since 1905 leading to a 

 more widespread use of silage. 



Silage for range cattle, R. H. Williams and W. S. Cunningham {Arizona 

 Sta. Rpt. 1917, pp. 469, 470).— Practical tests at the Cochise and Prescott Dry 

 Farms are cited to show that corn and grain sorglium silages are suitable 

 feeds to tide cattle over periods of range shortage. " Since there are large 

 areas in dry farming and overflow districts suitable for growing crops for 

 silage, these experiments suggest that stockmen should put forth every possible 

 effort to secure good land and raise crops which may be fed the animals during 

 short range." 



Tests of the work oxen of Morocco at the Moroccan agricultural exhibition 

 at Casablanca (October, 1918), A. Lekoy {Conipt. Retid. Acad. Agr. France, 4 

 {1918), No. 35, pp. 965-969). — The author publishes a table showing for each 

 of 14 oxen and 2 zebu crosses the age, the body weight, the height at the 

 withers, the maximum force exerted on a dynamometric spring, the maximum 

 velocity attained without load, and the power available for sustained muscu- 

 lar work. The last-named determination is assumed equal to 8.25 per cent 

 of the product of the two preceding, following the practice of Ringelman 

 (E. S. R., 20, p. 70), whose methods were used throughout. 



Forage crops for lambs, L. J, Horlacher {Breeder's Gas., 75 {1919), No. 26, 

 pp. 1508, 1510). — An experiment at the Kentucky Experiment Station comparing 

 rape and lilue grass as forage crops for lambs is reported. The lambs were 

 allowed to suckle the ewes night and morning, ran on pasture during the day, 

 and received from 0.5 to 0.75 lb. of grain (oats and bran, 2:1) per head daily. 

 The test lasted 42 days commencing June 20, 1918. 



The lot of 10 lambs with access to an acre of blue grass (not previously 

 pastured) had an average initial weight of 62.3 lbs., made a daily gain per 

 head of 0.3 lb. and consumed 2.2 lbs. of grain per pound of gain. The lot of 

 10 lambs with access to an acre of Dwarf Essex rape had an average initial 

 vv^eight of 59.4 lbs., gained at the rate of 0.38 lb. per head per day, required 

 only 1.8 lbs. of grain to make a pound of gain, and were in better market 

 condition at the end than the other lot. 



" During the first two weeks the lambs scarcely touched the rape at all, 

 with the result that the lambs on blue grass pastui-e made practically double 

 the gains of those on rape. ... By the middle of July the pastures were get- 

 ting very dry. The blue grass was still good, but it was getting short and 

 brown. The rape was turning brown and yellow. At the end of four weeks 



