184 



Feeds and Feeding. 



use. Fot until the sweating process has been completed in the 

 mow and the mass cooled off can new-crop hay be safely fed. 



265. Dried versus green grass. — At the Pennsylvania Station, * 

 Axmsby tested dried and fresh grass for cows in the following 

 manner: Short grass on the college lawn, cut with a lawn-mower, 

 was divided into two portions, one of which was fed in the fresh 

 stage to a cow, the other half being dried over a steam boiler and 

 fed in turn to the same cow. 



This investigator had previously conducted an experiment at 

 the Wisconsin Station in which grass from nine to ten inches in 

 height was used. Here half the grass was fed fresh, and the 

 other half, cut at the same time, was dried in the sun and fed to 

 the same cow. The yield of milk and butter-fat in these tests 

 was as follows: 



Daily yield of miUc and fat vMh cows fed green and dried grass — 

 Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Stations. 



These results are practically equal, showing that grass when 

 dried in the best possible manner yields as much nutriment as 

 vnll the same grass when fresh. In practice it is impossible 

 to dry grass or other forage plants in such a manner that the 

 product will equal the same plants in a fresh condition. In 

 hay-making more or less of the finer portions of the forage plants 

 are broken off and lost. Again, continued exposure of plants to 

 the sun reduces their palatability by bleaching and the loss of 

 aromatic compounds. Dew works injury, and rain carries away 

 the more soluble portions. Thns, while dried forage may theo- 

 retically equal the fresh substance, in practice it falls short, the 

 difference in value being determined by the circumstances con- 

 trolling the harvest. 



' Kept. 1888. 



