200 On Permanent and Temporary Meadows and Pastures. 
more than the first crop. It is lower in percentage of lime and 
magnesia, which, however, are but of secondary importance, 
looked at from the cattle-feeding point of view. It is certain 
then that cattle grazed on the crop of the second piece would 
have been better nourished than those to which the hay from the 
first piece would have been given, for they would have had in 
less weight of fodder at least an equal quantity of nutritive 
elements. I say at least an equal quantity, as the action of the 
scythe only imperfectly imitates grazing, for it leaves the 
smoothly cut stalks open and bleeding, and is more prejudicial 
to the regrowth of the plant than the action of the animal's 
teeth, which crushes them. Depasturing also leaves on the soil 
the excrement of the cattle, which constitutes a manure of great 
strength, and which was not supplied in our experiment. If the 
grass-land had been grazed, instead of mown six times, it would 
have supplied the beasts with a larger quantity of fodder than 
the scythe could get from it. 
Depasturing, then, has the advantage over mowing by sup- 
plying animals with a much richer and more nourishing food 
than hay. Young shoots are much more nitrogenous than plants 
in flower, and young green plants are more digestible than dried 
ones. In these latter, a great part of the cellulose, which has 
become woody, is useless, for it traverses the digestive organs of 
the animal without undergoing that transformation into sugar, 
which is indispensable for its utilisation as a respiratory aliment. 
Young plants, on the contrary, besides being richer in nitro- 
genous matters, sugar, and starch, which are easily digested, 
contain only recently formed cellulose, but little encrusted with 
woody fibre, and in a fit state to be transformed into sugar, 
under the influence of the digestive ferments. This is why 
depasturing puts more weight on a beast, other things being 
equal, than can be done by feeding in a shed the hay grown 
on the same ground. But it presents another advantage, inas- 
much as it leaves on the field a powerful manure, which restores 
to the soil the useful elements of nourishment which the animal 
has not assimilated : and which, if produced in the shed, can 
only be returned to the soil deteriorated, and attended with the 
expense of manual labour and transport. 
Aftermaths. — We see, by what has preceded, that aftermaths 
are richer in nitrogen than first cuts, and that they are more 
nitrogenous the younger they are gathered ; they are richer 
also in phosphoric acid and potash. Theoretically, after- 
maths constitute a better food than first cuts, and yet after- 
maths always sell at a lower price than the fodder from first 
cuts. This is doubtless because their appearance is less pleas- 
ing, and possibly also because when dried they may be more 
