Colorado Hays and Fodders. 
5 
dissolved by alcohol and cold water from alfalfa hay is about 36 
per cent, while the same inenstmua dissolve only 27 per cent from 
native hay and 28 from timothy. 
In the case of native hay, the results will doubtlessly vary 
with the different amounts of the various grasses which make up 
the hay. A hay consisting of blue stem principally will differ 
from one made up of a mixture of grasses, and probably still more 
from one consisting largely of sedges. This consideration should 
not be lost sight of when any statement concerning a native hay 
is made, for the statement may be based upon results obtained in 
experiments with a hay very different from the one the reader may 
have in mind. The mixture of grasses represented by the term 
native hay, is indicated by the sample used in Bulletin 39, in 
which we find the following: Andropogon scoparius , Car ex mar- 
cida , Elymus canadensis , Panicum mrgatu?n , Sporobolns as- 
perijolius , Sporobohis cryptandrus , Poa tennuifolio , Andro¬ 
pogon furcatus , Chrysopogen avenacrus , Calamovilja long- 
ifolio , Agropyron tenerum , and Bouteloua oligostachya. This 
mixture represented an excellent sample of this class of hay, but 
results obtained with it can only in a measure be applied to 
another hay representing a different mixture of grasses, i. e., to one 
consisting almost wholly of blue stem, Agropyron tenerum , or 
rushes and sedges. 
I recognize the necessity of having a representative sample of 
hay, even when the hay is composed exclusively of one plant, 
which is the case in the alfalfa hay, and for this reason alone I 
make the following statements: 
The sample of alfalfa hay used was furnished by the Farm 
Department. The practice is, when possible, to cut the alfalfa 
before it is more than in half bloom, and this hay was probably 
cut when the alfalfa was in this condition, but the analysis agrees 
better with the composition of a hay cut at a later period, i. e., 
when in full bloom or even past this stage. The hay was not 
first class hay. 
The results obtained with this sample were so exceptional, 
especially in regard to the ether extract or fat, that the analytical 
work was repeated in the case of the hay and the feces of sheep 
No. 3. The principal weakness in my data lies in the sample of 
hay itself, which is quite normal in its composition except in re¬ 
gard to the amount of ether extract or so called fat that it con¬ 
tains, of which there is even a little less than I have heretofore 
found in the stems or in hay made from plants in full seed. The 
protein, 13.12 per cent, is a shade low, and the crude fibre 41.05 
per cent, a trifle high for really good alfalfa hay, but they are 
not abnormal enough to justify their rejection. The ether extract, 
however, being less than one half the amount usually found in 
