Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1896-01-31
Relative Value of Hays.


of 40 pounds the following:
Peavine hay 100 pounds.
Corn 100 pounds.
Peanut vines. ...-.--..-.--.l Vo pounQs-
Pea hulls. Observation-Disclosures. 50 pounds.
Crab grass hay lOO POUNDS.
1t makes capital combination for my
horses and mich cows. Please give me
the commercial value per hundred weight
of this com bination with Timothy hay
selling at 81. 10 per hundred weight All
the ingredients are in prime condition.
All were cut in season, air cured and re-
tain foliage Do you approve of this
mixture?
| would be glad to be placed on your
mailing list, as / value the bulletin very
highly from what get through the news
papers.
Discussing the relative merits of hay
with II merchant. who is also a planter
and owner, he very much doubted my as
scrtion that crab grass hay ranked higher
than Timothy il nutriment, and that
peayine hay, cut at the proper time and
cured properly, outranked either. VIII
you he so kind as to publish or at least
give me the benefit of your information
on the relative merits OF timothy, orch
ard grass Bermuda, crab grass, peavlpe
hay, peanut hay, oat straw, pea hulls;
shucks. soy beans, crimson clover and
red clover? Our farmers are just begin
ming to find out that oat straw, shucks
and pea hulls are worth saving. | have
aud have only succeeded in advancing the
wonderful utility OF cowpeas as a hay,
grain and renovating crop. | trust am
not asking too much of you. The infor-
nation sought would be very valuable to
many OF us-A j., Greenville, \. c.
Answered by r L. Emery, AsricuI-
turist, y. c. Experiment Station
Your queries are in the line where
most farmers need information. There
are men who haul wood to this city at
s.. 90 to 81 so per cord and buy timothy
hay at 500 per ton to feed their teams.
Corn stalks are left to fall down in the
field by them and their neighbors. 1t IS
fairly capable of demonstration that the
wasted stalks if fed with meal ration
can replace the hay at a lower cost for
the ration than hay, corn and oats as
fed. You asked for commercial value
when it seems comparative feeding
value is what is desired. CONNER
cially, timothy hay outranks all others
That is the kind to raise to sell, but to
feed at home would be different Ques-
ton When the climate would suit,
earlier grasses would be used and some
others wonld be grown with timothy.
There is tendency to calculate food
into heat equivalents. That is, food is
burned III the animal body and pro
duces its effect III heat and nerve forces
which may, or not, be a form of express
sion for heat. The digestible portions
OF foods are reduced to heat equivalents
by adding to the sum of digestible pro-
tenn and carbohydrate" 2.27 times
the digestible fat
This will give a fair comparison of
timothy hay with the other articles
named above and included in the fol-
lowing table:
1t is perhaps the nearest comparative
Of actual feeding value though it is
manifestly unfair commercially since it
makes 10 account of the greater cost Of
protein as compared with carbohydra
The heat values are considered equal.
Considerable matter relating to the sub
ject Of the above queries will be found
in our digestion bulletins and some Of
the data contained in the table could
not be given but for those experiments.
AS it is, several foods are calculated on
an assumed digestibility. These are
Bermuda hay, taken from Bulletin IS
Of this Station. Grab grass hay, the
composition Of which was determined
at the Tennessee Experiment Station,
and the digestibility assumed as for hay
of annual gr&sses in Bulletin 70. Pea
hulls are Eere assumed to be equal
to bean hulls'' and Professor Stew
arts calculation Of digestibility is
All the cthc" articles have been sub
jectt& t. digestion i'll American expert
moIt%-