Water in Plants 35 



Pennsylvania State College 



Percentage of water 



Highly No 



manured manure 



Cut June 6, heads just appearing^ 79.7 76.5 



Cut June 23, just beginning to bloom 69.7 69.1 



Cut July 5, somewhat past full bloom 61.4 60 



What is true of timothy is probably true of all 

 forage crops m the perfectly fresh state. We have 

 here an explanation of the difficulty of curing early 

 cut grass. When the farmer begins haying, at least 

 two drying days are needed in order to secure a 

 product that will not ferment in the mow, wiiile later 

 in the season, grass cut in the morning may be safely 

 stored in the mow before night. At the Maine State 

 College in 1880, immature timothy grass lost 56.7 per 

 cent weight in curing and the ripe grass only 12.9 

 per cent. The extreme succulence of immature corn 

 and other crops previous to the formation of seed, is a 

 fact which the dairyman w^ho feeds soiling crops must 

 consider if he would uniformly maintain a ration up 

 to the desired standard. 



The proportion of water in plants is influenced also 

 by the lack or excess of soil moisture. The soil and 

 not the atmosphere is the source of supply of vegeta- 

 tion w^ater, which, taken up by the roots, traverses the 

 plant and passes into the atmosphere through the 

 leaves. If the supply is abundant, the tissues are 

 constantly fully charged, but if, by reason of drought, 

 the soil becomes very dry, the outgo of water by evap- 

 oration may exceed the income. What farmer has not 

 seen his corn with rolled leaves during an August 

 drought ! The vegetation water had fallen below the 



