FORAGE CROPS, MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



1449 



between the third and fourth cuttings was slight, averaging but 43 lbs 

 of hay per acre. The difference between the yield of the first and last 

 cuttings was small, but these cuttings produced an average of between 500 

 and 600 pounds less hay to the acre than did the third and fourth cuttings. 

 Thus these intermediate periods, when the seeds have been formed, show 

 the maximum yields of cured hay. 



The yield of digestible nutrients. The ^deld of digestible nutrients is a 

 much more accurate measure of the value of the harvest than the quan- 

 tity of cured hay obtained. When measured by the standard of digestible 

 nutrients produced, the earlier cuttings make a more favourable showing 

 than when measured by the amount of cured hay produced. This is 

 because the animals digest the early-cut hay more completely than they 

 do the late-cut hay. The digestibility of timothy hay declines steadily 

 as the plant develops, beginning as early as when the plants are in full head. 

 The second cutting, when the plants were in full bloom, gave the largest 

 yield of digestible dry matter, digestible protein, digestible fat, digestible 

 crude fibre and digestible nitrogen-free extract of any of the five cuttings. 

 In Table I are summed up the coefficients of digestibility of the different 

 cuttings, given as the mean of all the trials. 



TABI.E I. — Summary of average digestion coefficients of all trials. 



Table II sums up, for each of the five cuttings and as a mean of all the 

 experiments, the absolute and relative yield of digestible substances ; in 

 this case the relative figures are expressed in terms of the greatest amount 

 of each substance, reckoning this maximum as 100. 



Palatahility of hay as affected by the time of harvest. — Yearling steers 

 fed entirely on timothy hay, when given free access to the hays from all 

 the cuttings, in every case showed preference for them in the order in which 

 they were cut. The fourth and fifth ctittings were left almost untouched 

 until the hays of all earlier cuttings had been entirely eaten. Milking 

 cows, having grain and other roughage besides the hays under test, were not 

 so discriminating in their taste as regards the first three cuttings, but they, 

 like the steers, left the fourth and fifth cuttings almost untouched until 



