GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 109 
of the nitrogen-free extract, viz., the sugar and starch, which are 
soluble, or readily rendered soluble in the process of digestion. 
Grain hay is commonly made and fed to farm animals in 
western United States, and occasionally in other regions of the 
country as well, when conditions render it necessary or desirable 
_ to use it for this purpose. Barley, oats, wheat, and rye are used 
for hay-making and for pasturage or soiling. Oats make the best 
hay, while rye and barley are especially adapted for soiling or 
pasturage. The grain crops are, in general, cut for hay when the 
kernels are in the early milk stage; cut at this stage, they make a 
very nutritious and palatable hay. Oats may be cut a little later 
than this for hay, and barley preferably somewhat earlier, while 
the beards are still soft, so that they will not give trouble in feeding 
the hay. Wheat and barley hay are the common grain hays used 
on the Pacific coast, while oat hay is more generally fed in the 
southern States. Grain hay will yield an average of two to three 
tons of hay per acre on good land. Cut for either soiling purposes 
or for hay, the cereal crops yield forage of excellent quality and 
palatability and furnish large amounts of valuable feed components. 
At the stage given, early milk, the plants are relatively richer in 
protein than during the ripening period, and the nutritive ratio 
is, therefore, then considerably narrower than later on; hence more 
starchy, and, as a rule, cheaper concentrates may be fed with hay 
cut at this time than at a later stage of growth. 
Sorghum is a common soiling crop in the southern and central 
western States, and is also made into hay or silage. It resists 
drought well, and has the further advantage of retaining its green 
leaves late in the season. When intended for hay, it is generally 
sown thickly, using about three bushels of seed to the acre, so as to 
prevent a coarse growth. It is cut for hay at the late milk stage, 
and, for soiling, any time after blossoming till approaching ma- 
turity. When intended for silage, it should be left until mature 
before it is cut (p. 157). On good soils sorghum will yield two to 
four good crops of hay, often aggregating eight to ten tons during 
the season. Matured sorghum may be cut and left shocked in the 
field and fed in the same way as cornstalks, or may be run through 
a shredder. It.may be considered to possess a feeding value nearly 
similar to that of fodder corn, ton for ton, although it contains 
considerably less protein and somewhat more fiber than green corn 
(nutritive ratio of Indian corn, 1: 12.8; of sorghum, 1: 20.5). 
®In Kentucky Bulletin 175 attention is called to the fact that young 
green rye, wheat, and oats contain more protein than green legumes. 
