370 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



mechanically. We may use this figure as a measure of the 

 minimum losses by others. In every 100 pounds of the original 

 hay there were 26.5 pounds of fiber, and after it was damaged 

 there could not have been any more, and in fact there must have 

 been less. If we make the most favorable assumption, viz., 

 that there was no loss of fiber, then the 38.8 per cent, of fiber 

 in the damaged hay is really the fiber that was 26.5 per cent, 

 of the original hay. The apparent increase in the percentage 

 is due entirely to the loss of other constituents. The figures 

 representing the percentages of the other constituents as given 

 above are all correspondingly too high for comparison with the 

 percentages of those constituents in the original hay. In the 

 following table the weights of these constituents accompanying 

 26.5 pounds of fiber in the damaged hay have been calculated. 

 These are to the percentages of those constituents in the 

 damaged hay as 26.5 is to 38.8: 



Comparing these figures, it will be seen that of the original 

 100 pounds of hay only 68.8 pounds remained; that 60 per cent, 

 of the protein was lost, one-third of the fat, and *1 per cent, of 

 the nitrogen-free extract. As the assumption in reference to 

 fiber was more favorable than the facts, so this calculation in 

 respect to protein, fat and nitrogen-free extract gives figures 

 that are more favorable than was actually the case. 



Startling as the losses indicated by the preceding calculations 

 are, the actual damage is even greater than is indicated by 

 them. Since the materials lost obviously consisted of the most 

 soluble and easijy decomposed parts, and hence the parts most 

 easily digested, a smaller percentage of the protein remaining 

 was digestible in all probability than would have been the case 

 with the protein that was lost. It is quite reasonable to assume 

 that one-half of the feed values of the crop had been lost from an 

 exposure to rain that was not excessive in quantity and fell in 

 three different showers. 



Westgate's Bulletin. — From J. M. Westgate's ad- 

 mirable bulletin (Farmers' Bulletin 339, Department 



