I36 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



carbohydrates. It is possible to give this amount of dry matter 

 almost entirely in the form of dry food ; on the other hand, it is 

 possible to give a very large proportion of it in succulent food. 

 The universal custom is to mix the two; and the object of this 

 paper will be to try and point out the part which succulent food 

 plays in the dietary of milch cows, always assuming, and it is 

 impossible to impress it too strongly upon you, that the food 

 contains the necessary chemical constituents. 



As a scientific man, you will naturally and rightly expect 

 me to treat the subject in a scientific spirit, and to lay before 

 you facts which have been obtained as the results of accurate 

 and careful experiment. Such facts, unfortunately, do not exist 

 in sufficient number to enable one to draw definite and accurate 

 conclusions upon all the points which will be raised. Those 

 which do exist could not be given except in tabulated form, and 

 such tables would be unsuitable for the occasion, as they require 

 for their consideration the leisure and quiet of the study. My 

 object, therefore, will be to bring before you some considerations 

 worthy of further thought, and to elicit from the many practical 

 and able men present a record of their experience in feeding 

 dairy cattle upon silage and succulent food. 



Experience has placed beyond dispute one fact in dairying. 

 It is this, that the greatest yield of milk, the best butter, and the 

 best cheese are obtained when the cattle are out at grass. But 

 grass makes hay, and yet hay will not produce those same re- 

 sults. For many years it was assumed that no other change 

 took place in converting grass into hay than drying or the pass- 

 ing away of water. Yet experience showed that by giving hay 

 to cattle, and water in a bucket, one could not obtain the same 

 results as were obtained when ^rass was given, and this should 

 have taught men that there were other changes. We now 

 know that in miking hay two such changes take place other 

 than the mere loss of moisture. The first is only a change of 

 constituents, the other results in an actual loss of constituents. 

 These I will endeavor to explain. Of the material of the suc- 

 culent grass, the complicated digestive apparatus of the cow 



