288 MAKING HAY. 



Effect of Drijing. — "All the nutrients of dry, coarse fodder 

 are digested and resorbed to the same extent as when it is fed 

 green. This is only true when the fodder and the hay are other- 

 wise of exactly the same quality, when both are cut at the same 

 time and from the same field, and when none of the leaves or 

 other tender and especially nutritious parts are lost during the 

 preparation of hay. These considerations are never completely 

 reached in practice. 



" The digestibility of the organic constituents of a fodder is in 

 no way altered by simply drying in the air, provided it is exe- 

 cuted without loss of parts of the plants. The ordinary method 

 of making hay involves a considerable loss of leaves, and the 

 product suffers not only in its quality but in its digestibility as 

 well. 



" Effect of 8to7-ing. — The storing of fodder for a long time, 

 even when all necessary preventions, such as a dry and airy loca- 

 tion, etc., are observed, may decrease both its digestibility and 

 lialatability. 



" Period of Growth. — Early cut forage is not only superior, 

 other things being equal, to late cut, as regards its chemical 

 composition, but it excels it also in digestibility. This fact is 

 established b}- abundance of experimental evidence. 



" Digestibility is not sensibly increased by steaming or ensi- 

 lage. In jDractice, however, the palatability of a fodder may 

 often be very considerably increased by suitable preparation, and 

 the animals thus induced to eat larger quantities of fodder not 

 perhaps agreeable to them in its natural state. 



" TJie Fertility of the Soil affects the Quality of Plant. — 

 The natural quality and fertility of a soil have a very consider- 

 able influence on the chemical composition of the crop. Still 

 greater differences often show themselves when dark green 

 * rank ' plants are compared with pale yellowish-green ones of 

 the same kind, occurring in the same field, and of the same age. 



