200 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



more commonly fed to dairy cows, as the high protein con- 

 tent in each is conducive to free milk production. It is 

 claimed that soy bean hay should be made before the plants 

 approach the maturing period or much of the grain will es- 

 cape mastication and will not be properly digested. 



In sheep feeding, hay from these plants is not much 

 used for the reason just given as to why it is not much used 

 in feeding cattle. But when cut early and well cured, sheep 

 eagerly consume it, especially after they have become ac- 

 customed to it. It is particularly useful in feeding ewes 

 nursing lambs and which have not yet been turned out to 

 pasture. When largely made up of coarse stems from 

 which many of the leaves have been lost, the value of the 

 hay for feeding sheep is proportionately lessened. 



In feeding suine, bean hay is of but little value, owing 

 to the small quantities of it the animals consume. But, of 

 course, hogs may glean profitably in soy bean and velvet 

 bean fields, when the crops are not to be otherwise har- 

 vested. Common field beans and horse beans are too val- 

 uable for such feeding. Swine are not so fond of beans in 

 the raw state as they usually are of peas, corn and the 

 small cereal grains. 



Plorses and mules may be fed bean hay when available. 

 To young horses and brood mares it may be fed with much 

 freedom, when the proportion of grain in the hay is not too 

 large. The horse bean, when fed as hay in the nearly ma- 

 tured form, may be made to furnish a large proportion of 

 the fodder and grain required. The additional grain 

 should be corn when available. What has been said of the 

 horse bean will probably apply also to the soy bean. 



Timothy hay. This crop now grown most extensively 

 in the northern part of the United States, and in nearly all 

 of the arable areas of Canada, stands higher as a fodder for 

 horses than any other plant grown. In states farther south, 

 it is also grown more or less, but in these it is not relied 

 upon to anything like so great an extent in providing fod- 

 der for horses. No other kind of hay is so suitable for 



