164 OUR FARM CROPS. 



indigestible woody fibre, than the oats allowed to be fully 

 matured. It is well known that animals fed upon the 

 young shoots of herbage will thrive very well, whereas 

 the same food, at a more advanced period of maturity, is 

 unable to sustain their condition. The reason now ap- 

 pears clear. In j r oung shoots, starch, sugar, gum, and 

 other readily digestible substances, are found in great pro- 

 portions ; in this stage of growth they are soft, and readily 

 assimilated. But as the young plant approaches maturity, 

 more or less of these soluble matters are gradually changed 

 into indigestible fibre, the plant consequently becomes by 

 degrees hard and woody, and less digestible and nutritious. 

 Thus, green oats are always more readily digested in the 

 animal organism than when allowed to be fully matured, 

 and owe their superior feeding value to this circumstance, 

 as well as to the absolutely larger proportion of nitrogen 

 (flesh-forming) compounds, which were found both in the 

 grain and in the straw of the plant. In order, therefore, 

 to obtain the maximum amount of food from the oat, it 

 should be cut when the seed is fully formed, but before 

 the slightest change takes place in the colour of the straw, 

 made into hay in the usual manner, and then given to the 

 horses or cattle in a cut state, in the form of chaff. 



The analyses given will furnish sufficient data for esti- 

 mating the quantity of oat hay to be given as an equi- 

 valent for any other feeding substance, whose composition 

 is equally known. 



