178 Journal of Agricultural Research voi. xiv, no. 4 
advantage if the haying season is wet; the cutting of the Sudan grass 
may advantageously be postponed for a week or 10 days if there is a 
prospect of improvement in the weather. 
In spite of the fact that Sudan grass is now grown in quite an extensive 
territory, it has been fed but little experimentally. Large amounts of 
Sudan hay are consumed annually, yet only in one or two cases have 
accurate records been kept of the results it produced. 
So far only one digestion trial has been conducted with Sudan-grass 
hay. This work consisted of a 5-day test period with a 2-year-old bull, 
and the results of it are given in Table IV. 
Table; IV. —Digestibility of Sudan-gross hay (6) 
Constituent. 
Digestion 
coefficient. 
Dry matter. 
Per cent. 
60. 6 
35-4 
6 3-3 
67. I 
41. 2 
Crude protein.. 
Nitrogen-free extract. 
Crude fiber. 
Ether extract. 
The digestion coefficients for Sudan-grass hay obtained at the Mary¬ 
land Experiment Station compare well with those for other nonlegumi- 
nous roughages ( 6 ). 
At the Kansas Experiment Station Sudan-grass hay was compared 
with alfalfa hay as a roughage for dairy cows. Two lots of three cows 
each were used. There were two 30-day test periods. In the first period 
Lot I received alfalfa hay and Lot II Sudan-grass hay, while in the 
second test period the roughages for the two lots were reversed (Table V). 
Table; V. — Sudan-grass hay v. alfalfa hay for milk production 
Roughage. 
Gain due 
to alfalfa. 
Sudan 
grass. 
Alfalfa. 
Milk produced. 
Pounds. 
4, 022 
168 
Pounds. 
4 ) 112 
178 
1,077 
Pounds. 
go 
10 
24 
Fat produced. 
Average body weight. 
This shows a difference in production of 0.5 pound of milk per head 
per day in favor of the alfalfa hay. This is not a large difference, but 
if the experiment had been run for another 30-day period so as to facili¬ 
tate the elimination of the decrease in production due to advance in 
lactation, there is little doubt that the Sudan-grass hay would have 
shown up even less favorably. The fact that the cows increased in 
weight when receiving the alfalfa is significant ( 6 ). 
