MAHTUAL OF CATTLE-FEEDINTG 261 



With, the exception of the fat, whose digestibility, as we 

 have seen, cannot be determined very accurately, the seve- 

 ral nutrients were equally well digested in the two cases. 



This result, which has been fully confirmed by many 

 other experiments, stands in apparent contradiction to tlxe 

 general experience of farmers. 



It must be remembered, however, that it is only true when 

 the green fodder and the hay 'are otherwise of exactly the 

 same quality; when both are cut at the same time and 

 from the same field, and when none of the leaves or other 

 tender and especially nutritious parts are lost during the 

 preparation of the hay. 



These conditions are never completely reached in prac- 

 tice, especially in the making of clover or lucerne hay, and 

 for this reason, and also because green fodder is commonly 

 used at an eai-lier stage of growth than that which is con- 

 verted into hay, a greater nutritive eff^t is generally ob- 

 served with green fodder. 



For the present we may pass over the question whether 

 the large quantity of water which milking animals con- 

 sume in green fodder exercises any considerable influence 

 on the amoxmt of milk produced, but the digestihiUtij of 

 the organic constituents of a fodder is in no way altered 

 by simple drying in the air, provided it is executed with- 

 out loss of parts of the plants. 



On the other hand, the ordinary method of making hay 

 involves a considerable loss of leaves, etc., and the product 

 suffers not only in its quality, as shown by chemical analy- 

 sis, but in its digestibility as well. 



For example, in some experiments at Ilohenheim, by 

 "Wolff, Funke, and Kellnei',"^ the loss involved in the prep- 



* Landw. Versuclis Statioaen, XXI. , 425. 



