CHAPTER III 

 FORAGE CROPS FOR SOILING 



The principles of feeding are the same whether 

 animals are fed dried or succulent foods. That is, 

 the relative values of the actual digestible nutri- 

 ents are not changed, nor are the functions of the 

 nutrients different in the one case from the other; 

 yet, in comparisons that have been made of the 

 feeding- value of nutrients contained in dry-forage 

 rations with those in green and succulent forage, it 

 has been found tliat a unit of digestible food of 

 the same kind in the succulent ration has a greater 

 efficiency than a unit of the same kind in the dry 

 ration. This is thought to be due to the fact that 

 a slightly greater expenditure of the total energy 

 contained in the food is required in the utilization 

 of a unit of food than of its equivalent in dry 

 succulent food, with a corresponding increase in 

 the net energy. This fact has a bearing on the ques- 

 tion of soiling, because it enables the feeder to 

 utilize more completely the nutrients that are raised 

 on his farm. The same facts, however, apply in 

 pasturing as well as in soiling, although, in the 

 case of pasturing, animals do not always have at 

 their command the ration in its best or most succu- 



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