CHAPTER X. 



CURING AND SECURING HAY. 



WE have seen that grasses attain their full develop- 

 ment at the time of flowering, and then contain the 

 highest percentage of soluble materials, such as starch, 

 sugar, and gum ; and that these, with the nitrogenous 

 compounds, then also most abundant, are of greatest 

 value as furnishing the nutriment of animals, while 

 woody fibre and mineral matter, though important as 

 giving bulk to the food, are insoluble and least nutri- 

 tious. We have seen, also, that, in the transition from 

 the flowering to the ripening of the seed, the starch, 

 sugar, <fcc., are gradually transformed into woody fibre, 

 in which state they possess no nutritive qualities, and 

 are, of course, of little value. This fact, which is per- 

 fectly well established by careful experiment and accu- 

 rate analysis, confirmed, as already seen, by intelligent 

 practibe, is of great importance as indicating the condi- 

 tion in which most of our cultivated grasses should be 

 cut, and our practice is pretty uniformly consistent 

 with it. 



But there is another equally instructive suggestion 

 in these transforming processes, and it is this : If grass 

 is cut in a condition ever so succulent, and before the 

 transition of sugar, &c., into woody fibre has commenced, 

 there will even then be some loss of sugar and starch 

 from the action of heat and moisture, especially if the 

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