390 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Hecent experimental inquiry has shown that the value of a 

 feed depends (juite largely on the ease with which it is di- 

 gested. It was formerly supposed that a pound of digestible 

 dry matter from one source was just as valuable as a pound 

 from another, but this supposition has been overthrown by 

 recent experimenting. The energy or labor required in di- 

 o-estino: a certain feed must come from the food eaten. If 

 the food eaten is largely coarse, dry fodders, more energy 

 will be required in the work of digestion, and less will be left 

 for building up valuable products, than where the feed is 

 mainly easily digested materials, such as succulent fodders or 

 ground grains. For the same reason, the older and tougher 

 the fodder is when harvested, the greater will be the labor 

 of digestion. Some German experiments have shown that 

 from 10 to 12 per cent of the total energy of certain coarse, 

 dry fodders was used up in the labor of digesting the fodder. 



It may thus readily be seen that the extensive feeding of 

 coarse, woody fodders is a severe tax on the total energy 

 of the ration in the work of makhig the food nutrients avail- 

 able. It follows, then, that a ration made up largely of 

 grains and ensilage and early-cut hays, with only a small 

 proportion of coarse or late-cut dr}^ fodders, will furnish a 

 larger proportion of available energy than a ration composed 

 quite largely of coarse, dry fodders. This helps to explain 

 why the exclusive or heavy feeding of late-cut coarse fodders 

 to milch cows is not generally profitable. 



