310 MANUAL OF CATTLE-l^EEDIKG. 



LuPiKES. — The yellow lupine yields, wlien exit just at 

 the end of flowering, the most highly nitrogenous of all 

 coarse fodders. 



Experiments by Heidepriem ^ on lupine hay cut just as 

 the pods were beginning to form, perhaps somewhat ear- 

 lier than is customary in practice, showed that it contained 

 the enormous quantity of 27.8 per cent, of protein in the 

 dry matter. 



The digestibility of the protein by sheep was found to 

 be 74, that is, almost the same as in vetches and lucerne. 

 This seems to indicate that at about 80 per cent, we have 

 reached the maximum to which the digestibility of the 

 protein of coarse fodder can rise, since with about the 

 same percentage of crude fibre the quantity of protein 

 varies in the three fodders just named from about 19.2 

 per cent, to 27.8 per cent., without producing any consid- 

 erable increase of its digestibility. 



A striking fact is the high digestion coefficient foimd 

 for cnide fibre (74), while in vetches and lucerne, both of 

 similar composition, it was much lower, viz., about 54 

 and 38 respectively. 



If this observation be trustworthy, lupine hay forms an 

 exception to the general rule that the nitrogen-free extract 

 is a measure of the total digestible non-nitrogenous matter ; 

 the relation in this case was found to be 100 : 124, i. <?., for 

 100 parts of nitrogen-free extract, 124 parts of extract and 

 ciaide fibre together were digested. 



All?:aloids of Lupines. — As is well known, lupine hay 

 and green lupines, as well as the seeds of this plant, 

 must be used almost entirely for sheep fodder, since other 

 domestic animals eat them only unwillingly on account of 



* Jalixesber. Agr. Ohem., IG, 11., 118. 



