-78 THE dairyman's manual. 



does; and it is done in the drying of grass into hay. Ex- 

 posure to the sun's heat and light destroys the green 

 color of the grass first ; the bright green pales and be- 

 comes lighter at first, and in time changes to a brown. 



» This green color consists of a substance m the cells of 

 the plant called chlorophyll, or leaf green. It is an oily 

 ^substance, and under the influence of oxygen changes to 

 a yellow. It is supposed that this coloring matter of the 

 fresh grass imparts the yellow color to butter. Grass 

 butter is yellow, but hay butter is white ; that is, if the 

 hay is made in the common manner by sun drying until 

 the green color is lost. The chemical change m the 

 making of tne hay has destroyed this coloring matter. 

 This IS one of the changes. But the operation of drying 

 the hay changes the sugar, gum and starch — m part — 

 back to woody fiber. Hence hay contains a considerably 

 larger proportion of fiber than grass does, and less sugar, 

 gum and starch. The fiber is much less digestible than 

 these substances, hence hay is not as nutntious as 

 grass IS. 



This IS one of the facts known in relation to grass 

 upon which the proper process of making hay is based. 

 Hay may be made so as to retain all the good qualities 

 and nutriment of the grass. This is done by cutting 



w the grass — or clover, or any other fodder crop — when it 

 is m its first stages of blossoming. It then contains the 

 most of -the valuable nutritious elements, and the least 

 of the indigestible matter. And to preserve these nu- 

 tritious elements from loss, the grass must be cured in 

 the shade without exposure to the sun's light or heat, 

 and dried by some heating process. In England the 

 very best of hay is made by drying the newly-cut grass 

 by artificial heat m a macliine constructed for 'the pur- 

 pose. The grass or clover is cut and dried at once, and 

 retains its bright green color, its fragrant odor — given out 

 by the essential oils contained in the grass, and which 



