THE SMALLER GRASSES STRAW HAY-MAKING 219 



lambs. At the Ohio Station* 4 it was found that lambs fed corn and 

 linseed meal made better gains on soybean straw than on corn stover, 

 tho refusing 41 per ct. of the soybean straw. Field-pea straw, with its 

 finer stems and often still carrying some seed, is worth more than the 

 coarser straw from field beans or soybeans. 



While not especially desirable, flax straw may be fed in the absence of 

 better roughage. The statement that the stringy fiber of flax forms indi- 

 gestible balls in the stomach of farm animals is unwarranted, since it is 

 digested the same as other fibrous matter. Green colored straw from 

 immature flax plants should be fed with extreme caution, as it may 

 contain large amounts of prussic acid. Ince of the North Dakota Sta- 

 tion 45 found the amount of this poison in straw or chaff from ripe flax 

 plants so small that it could not cause trouble if fed in moderate amounts. 

 Straw containing considerable flax seed or weed seeds has increased value. 

 Wilson of the South Dakota Station 46 advises against feeding flax straw 

 to pregnant animals. 



Buckwheat straw is of low value and may cause digestive disturbances 

 if fed in large amount. 47 Nelson of the Arkansas Station 48 states that 

 properly cured rice straw is excellent for stock. 



III. HAY-MAKING 



Thruout the temperate regions hay from the grasses and legumes 

 serves as the common roughage for all the larger animals that produce 

 food or perform labor for man. The conversion of green forage into 

 hay must have been the first great step in changing the nomad herdsman 

 into the farmer-stockman. In the United States for the year 1921, about 

 74,225,000 acres of land produced 96,802,000 tons of hay worth on the 

 farm $1,090,776,000. 49 



330. Nutritive value of dried grass. To determine the effect upon its 

 feeding value of drying young grass Armsby 50 conducted a trial at the 

 Wisconsin Station and a later test at the Pennsylvania Station. In the 

 Wisconsin experiment the grass was cut when 9 to 10 inches high, and 

 in the Pennsylvania trial short grass was cut with a lawn mower. In 

 each case half the grass was fed fresh to a cow, and the other half later 

 fed to the same cow after being carefully dried in the sun on canvas 

 in the first trial, and in the second, over a steam boiler. There was no 

 difference in the amount either of milk or butter fat produced on the 

 dried and the fresh grass, showing that perfectly dried grass yields as 

 much nutriment as when fed in the fresh condition. In actual hay mak- 

 ing, however, more or less of the finer portions of the plant is always lost. 



Exposure to the sun reduces the palatability by bleaching and causes 

 a loss of aromatic compounds, dew works injury, and rain carries away 



"Carmichael, Ohio Bui. 245. ^Ark. Bui. 98. 



"N. D. Bui. 106. W U. S. D. A., Mo. Crop Reporter. 



"Breeder's Gaz., 59, 1911, p. 19. BO Penn. Kept. 1888. 



"Pott. Ernahr. u. Futter., II, p. 329. 



