8 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



the earing stage, and it will be eaten with avidity. 

 Feed it when fully out in head and it will be eaten 

 indifferently. Feed it when ripe and little else than 

 the heads will be eaten. Feed the straw after the grain 

 has been threshed, and it will be consumed by the 

 animals only when impelled by hunger. Chemists 

 tell us that fodder plants contain all the food ele- 

 ments that they will possess at the time the ripening 

 process begins, that is to say, by the time they have 

 reached that stage when the stalk begins to assume 

 a yellow tinge at the ground. They should be fed, 

 therefore, as soiling food before they pass this stage, 

 for as soon as they get beyond it there is loss in 

 palatability. And there is loss in digestibility as the 

 ripening stage is neared, that is to say, the propor- 

 tion of the indigestible woody fiber is increased. 



On the other hand, when plants are cut when 

 considerably short of maturity, there is loss from 

 want of sufficient development. Theoretically, the 

 most food will be got from plants when they are cut 

 as soiling food a little short of maturity. In prac- 

 tice, however, this is impossible, as it would too much 

 curtail the length of the period for feeding each crop. 

 But with crops that grow again and again, as with 

 alfalfa, for instance, there is no loss probably in cut- 

 ting them as soon as they have made sufficient 

 growth to justify the expenditure of the labor 

 involved. 



Sustains Animals in Better Form. — By the aid 

 of soiling food domestic animals can be maintained 

 in better form than without it. With such aid they 

 can be maintained in a more even condition, the ani- 

 mal energy can be more perfectly conserved, and the 



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