SERICEA AND OTHER PERENNIAL LESPEDEZAS 



25 



a 20-day period. The results are shown in table 6. The cows did 

 not eat sericea as readily as alfalfa, but they seem to have done 

 well on it. No information is given on the quality of the hay fed. 



Table 6. — Hay consumed by 3 cotvs during each of four 20-day 

 feeding periods and the milk and butterfat produced and gain 

 in weight made 1 2 



Feed- 



Hay consumed 



Milk pro- 

 duced 



Butterfat 

 produced 



Gain in 



ing 

 period 



Kind 



Amount 



weight 



First 



Sericea 



Pounds 



268.3 



88.5 



249.9 



681.0 

 360.4 



Pounds 



2,204.4 



] 1,946.4 



1,774.1 

 1,392.3 



Pounds 

 81.72 

 78.32 



72.77 

 62.30 



Pounds 

 63 





( do 





Second _ 



(Ali'alfa 3 



39 



Third— . 

 Fourth - 



Equal parts of sericea 



and alfalfa, ground 



Sericea and molasses 4 



86 



77 



1 Records of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station (23) . 



2 30 pounds of silage and 10 pounds of concentrates per cow per day were 

 also fed. 



3 Sericea and alfalfa fed on alternate days. 



4 10 pounds of ground sericea to 1 pound of molasses. 



In every case for which data are available where sericea hay 

 has been compared with alfalfa the sericea was cut at a later 

 stage than it should have been cut. Even where it is called 

 good, the analysis shows that the growth must have been 18 or 

 more inches high. As will be shown later (p. 26), it is now 

 known that hay cut at a height of 15 or more inches contains 

 more tannin than that cut earlier. This alone may explain some 

 of the unsatisfactory results from feeding sericea to high-pro- 

 ducing dairy cows. Feeding trials with hay cut at 10 to 12 

 inches in height are greatly needed. Until there is a record 

 of a number of these and until good sericea hay has been com- 

 pared with grass hay as well as with alfalfa, the real value of 

 sericea for feeding will not be known. 



A number of farmers have reported their experiences and 

 while these do not cover comparative experiments, they do express 

 the view that the results with mules, horses, and cattle have been 

 good. There are reports from every State from Virginia to 

 Oklahoma on feeding sericea exclusively for from 1 to 3 years 

 with good results. A county agent in southwestern Virginia re- 

 ported that mules were carried over winter on sericea hay alone 

 and were in better condition than the year before when they 

 had grain and clover and timothy hay. Farmers in various parts 

 of Tennessee have reported that horses and mules thrive on 

 sericea hay and that in many cases feeding corn has been dis- 

 continued as unnecessary. Hogs were said not to relish the hay 

 and some cattle did not like sericea hay at first but did well after 

 getting used to it. 



