54 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



In most American cities, the market is strongly prej- 

 udiced in favor of timothy hay as horse feed, so that any 

 other sort of grass hay commands a smaller price. In 

 Europe, on the contrary, Italian rye-grass furnishes the 

 popular market hay, though timothy apparently grows 

 quite as well in Europe as in America. 



Cattle feeders in the West favor alfalfa greatly, and 

 are willing to pay considerably more for alfalfa hay than 

 for any other. 



In he region where Kentucky blue-grass does well it is 

 almost the only grass, sown for permanent pastures. 

 European farmers do not regard it nearly so highly, and 

 in their practice usually plant more or less complex 

 mixtures of grass seeds for pasture. 



46. Feeding values. The problem of determining 

 the relative values of roughages for feeding purposes is 

 involved and difficult. Three general methods have been 

 employed, namely : 



1. Direct feeding experiments in which the value of 

 the compared feeds is determined by the results secured, 

 whether in milk, flesh, wool, labor, etc. 



2. Determination by chemical analyses of the nutrient 

 substances contained in the feed, and the proportion di- 

 gested by the animal, the latter constituting the digestible 

 nutrients. 



3. Determination of the net energy of a feed-; namely, 

 that available to the production of milk, flesh and the 

 like. 



47. Feeding experiments. Simple feeding experi- 

 ments may be planned so that two single feeds may be 

 directly compared with each other or both may be com- 

 pared to a third taken as a standard. To secure reliable 

 results in feeding experiments, both care and skill are 



