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 pouncs 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: 
Nitrogen- 
Ash. | Protein.| Fiber. free Fat. Total. 
extract. 
Original 12.2 > 18.7 26.5 38.7 3.9 100 
Damaged.,... 8.7 7.5 26.5 23.0 2.6 68.3 
Pounds lost... 8.5 11.2 157 1.3 81.7 
Per cent lost 28.7 60.0 41.0 33.3 31.7 
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 41 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 easily 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 
