42 BULLETIN 981, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The remarkably close similarity in the composition of Sudan grass, 
Johnson grass, timothy, and millet hay is shown by Table IX. The 
legume hays, of course, show a high percentage of protein, and this 
must be taken into consideration in feeding. Corn fodder and 
sorghum fodder are very similar in composition, and each is of 
lower feeding value than any of the hays because there is more waste 
in feeding eae 
Only a few determinations of the digestibility of Sudan grass hay 
have been made, but these show that its rank in digestibility, as in 
composition, is practically equal to that of millet and timothy hays. 
One of the tests was carried out at the Maryland Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station in 1915 with a young bull, another at the Iowa Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station in December, 1916, with two Guernsey 
heifers, and the third with two sheep at the Texas Agricultural 
Experiment Station. (Table X.) 
TaBLE X.—Coeficients of digestibility of Sudan grass, millet, and timothy hays. 
Digestion coefficients. 
Constituents. Sudan grass. 
Millet.s | Time- 
_, | Mary- : | +By- 
Towa.! | land.2 Texas.$ | 
‘ Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. 
DTA MIR VUG) soso ncadecres-6e> se scU hese nsetusieNcnne oe 64.9 GONG A at ae ei 65 
JEXRO LAER 8 ee a eee ere BE Ba nae Ces aoe 47.4 35.4 61.3 60 57 
Orudenibercyrts* Ae Conse Ree Ri Waker Raye as 67.8 63.3 47. 2 68 57 
INTEnOgen-tree ext TaCtan sae eee ane ae ene ae eteoe 70.6 67.1 | 59.4 67 63 
EY GTC xtra Cb Tat es tae oe aes oe ae re ee ee 58. 4 41.2 53.2 64 48 
1 Data from Gaessler (9, p. ays 
2 Data from Schmit Z (20, D. 62). 
3 Data from Fraps (7, p. 10); average of digestion experiments 60 and 62. 
4 Data from Henry dl Morrison (10, p. 649); Hungarian miilet and timothy cut when in bloom. 
The digestion experiments at the Texas station showed that sheep, 
as compared with cattle, will digest a much larger percentage of the 
protein but considerably less of the carbohydrates of Sudan grass. 
A larger number of tests are necessary to determine accurately thé 
digestibility of Sudan grass. 
A pecuhar feature of the effect of climate on the composition of 
Sudan grass is shown in Table XI. The grass when grown in regions of 
hieht rainfall, such as the Great Plains, has a higher percentage of 
ash and protein than when grown in the more humid regions farther 
east. 
The differences apparent in the averages shown in Table XI very 
fairly represent the actual differences in the composition of the grass, 
it is believed, when grown in different sections of the United States; 
that produced in the semiarid regions has a higher percentage of all 
the really essential food elements except fat and must therefore be 
a better feed. 
