FOOD FROM CURED FODDERS 2O5 



Bermuda grass is by far the most valuable grass grown 

 in the South. It is, strickly speaking, a summer grass, and 

 one for mild latitudes, as it turns brown with the first frosts 

 of autumn. It will not live in a soil that is penetrated deeply 

 by frost. It will also grow, though by no means equally 

 well, on nearly all the soils of the South. Strickly speaking, 

 it is a pasture grass, but it also makes palatable and nutri- 

 tious hay, although the yields are not large relatively. The 

 aim should be to feed it in conjunction with such fodder as 

 alfalfa or cowpea hay, or with such a concentrate as cotton- 

 seed meal. 



Wild prairie hay is largely fed in both the American 

 and Canadian Northwest. Of course it is a gradually dimin- 

 ishing quantity, but for many years it will still continue to 

 be an important source of hay in the areas named. It varies 

 greatly in quality with the grasses which compose it, the 

 soils on which it grows, the stage at which it is cut, and the 

 character of the curing. It usually embraces a number of 

 grasses and other plants, some of which partake of the 

 character of the weeds. On the upland the general charac- 

 ter of the growth is fine, but in the sloughs it is usually rank 

 and dense. Harvesting prairie grass is very frequently so 

 long deferred that the value of the hay is lessened although 

 it will bear such treatment better than most grasses. It is 

 also very frequently injured by over exposure in the swath. 

 It is very evident that such hay will vary so much in charac- 

 ter that its feeding value cannot be given in any other than 

 a general way. In tests made, upland prairie hay has been 

 found to possess feeding properties about equal to timothy 

 and to be adapted to the same kinds of feeding (see p. 200). 

 The presence of foreign substances will of course reduce 

 the value of such hay in proportion as they are present. 



Hay from the small grains. Hay is sometimes made 

 from the various kinds of small grains grown singly, 

 or in various combinations. When grown singly the hay 

 takes its name from the grain which furnishes it. There is, 

 therefore, rye hay, speltz hay, wheat hay, barley hay, oat 



