18 BULLETIN 128, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cient quantity, because it has been done ; and under certain circum- 

 stances like the present, when the saving and producing of meat is so 

 vitally important to the whole world, the mere possibility of keeping 

 stock from dying during the short period of feed scarcity assumes an 

 importance out of all proportion to the possible financial loss involved. 

 It was the appreciation of the necessity of saving not only all the meat 

 animals that would have died but especially the breeding stock which 

 are to furnish the next beef crop that made not only the stockmen 

 but the makers of the chopping machines so persistent in their effective 

 efforts. Stockmen of long experience in the arid Southwest know that 

 it is the series of dry years that puts them out of business. They 

 know that the dry years will be followed by wet ones and that the 

 calf crops when there is good feed will more than pay the expense of 

 saving the breeding herd in the dry years, if it can be done. They 

 also know that if the breeding herd is lost there will be no calf crop, 

 no matter how good the feed may be later; hence, the very great 

 importance of feed on their own ranges, which may be made available 

 to the stock at small expense and with a little work. 



QUANTITY FED. 



This bulletin contains no records of weights except in the case of 

 the two wagonloads already mentioned. The other figures given rest 

 upon the judgment of the men doing the hauling, whose estimates, 

 however, are reasonably accurate. There was of course no uniformity 

 of practice among the users of the feed, and the opinions as to the 

 necessary amounts to feed ranged from 10 to 40 pounds of fresh- 

 chopped feed per day for a mature animal. In practice, however, 

 no one whose record was obtained fed more than 30 pounds per head 

 per day, and over half of them fed less than 18 joounds per head per 

 day. The feed for weaned calves and coming yearlings was 6 or 7 

 pounds per head and for mature animals about 18 to 20 pounds per 

 head per day. The average feed for 11,373 head of all classes was 



14 pounds per head of chopped soap weed per day. 



A feed of 15 pounds of freshly chopped soap weed (Yucca elata) 

 contains a little more than 5 pounds of dry matter, of which about 

 0.4 of a pound is crude protein, less than 0.1 of a pound is ether extract 

 (usually called fat), 1.4 pounds is crude fiber, and 2.8 pounds is 

 nitrogen-free extract (usually called carbohydrates). A feed of 



15 pounds of average alfalfa hay would contain nearly 14 pounds of 

 dry matter, containing 2.23 pounds of crude protein, 0.34 pound of 

 ether extract, 4.23 pounds of fiber, and 5.60 pounds of nitrogen-free 

 extract. 



It will be seen from these figures that there is in alfalfa hay over 

 2\ times as much total dry matter, over five times as much crude 



