892 FOOD AND FEEDING. 



220 lbs. of gretu clover or lucern, the quantity which is actually 

 obtained on an average, the ratio comes out 8 to 2.G, a number which 

 falls somewhat short of that which is assumed, but not much. With 

 regard to the difference in the feeding or nutritive value of green 

 and dried fodder, the loss may in a general way be ascribed to loss 

 of the more substantia] parts of the plants especially experienced in 

 the process of drying. This is the conclusion, at all events, to which 

 M. Crud came ; I have myself, however, found that clover-hay, 

 made in the field and ricked in the usual way, had not the same 

 nutritive value as a quantity of the same crop carefully dried :n the 

 laboratory. 



By way of pendant to the conclusions of Messrs. Perrault, from 

 their valuable observations, I shall here add the average of some 

 experiments that were made at Bechelbronn, in 1841, on the eon- 

 version of clover into clover-hay. The clover crops of this season 

 were magnificent ; the plant in its second year growing to more than 

 a yard in height. Green clover on the average may be considered 

 as consisting of: 



Clover-hay 29.85 



Water 70.15 



100.00 



As extremes in our experiments of 1841, we add : 



Clover-hay 35.7 25.0 



Water 64.3 76.0 



100.0 100.0 



Analysis gave the number 75 as the nutritive equivalent number 

 of clover-hay. Assuming 76 to represent the moisture lost during 

 the drying, the equivalent becomes 311 for the same fodder in the 

 green state, meadow-hay, the standard, being 100. 



But practice is not here in harmony with theory ; the value of 

 clover-hay, in point of nutritive power, is found not to differ essen- 

 tially from that of meadow-hay ; and the equivalent of green clover 

 is generally placed between 425 and 500. And I may say, that 

 daily experience in the stable tends to show that the theoretical 

 equivalent of clover-hay is too high, that its nutritious properties are 

 not so great as they are inferred to be. From a mean of four 

 weighings, I find that four cows upon green clover consume 2499 

 lbs., or 624f lbs. each per diem. The usual allowance to one of 

 our cows, however, is 33 lbs. of hay of good quality ; from which 

 it would follow, that the equivalent of green clover would be 445. 

 But the animals on the green fodder fattened apace, and every thing 

 showed that they were very differently nourished than they would 

 have been with their 33 lbs. of meadow-hay. According to theo- 

 retical data, each cow in its 624| lbs. of green food per day received 

 an equivalent of 47.3 lbs. of hay ; and if it be considered, that during 

 the season of green forage they have it almost at will, it must be 

 conceded that during this period the quantity of food consumed ii 

 actually greater than when it is regularly doled out. .A^dditional ex- 



