20 Farmers' Bulletin ÍÍ26.

FEEDING VALUE.

Sudan grass is relished by all classes of live stock either as a hay or when fed green. Chemical analyses of Sudan grass show it to have about the same composition as the common foxtail millet and timothv.

TABLK II. — Total nutrients and amount of each digestible in 100 pounds of the dry nuttter of Sudan grass, millet, and timothy.1 Nutrients.

Total.

Badas grass. MlUet. Timothy nigostihle.

Sudan grass. Millet. Timothy.

Dry matter Ash Ether extract Protein Crude fiber Nitrogen-Iree extract Pounds.

100 7.04 1.80 8.06 29.68 51.62 Pounds.

100 7.3S 3.27 8 M 28.00 51.69 Pmtndi.

100 S.28 2.98 7.34 33.83 50.69 Pounds.

63.50 PovfMb.

SS.00 Pounds.

59.00 .95 3.89 20.56 34.22 2.09 6.81 19.04 34.63 1.42 4.33 19.28 31.93 1 The averages of 33 analyses of Sudan grass made by the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agricm turo, are given in Table IL together with the averages of 56 analyses of common or Hungarian millet, and 60 analyses of timothy. Theanalysesotmillct and timotliy aretakenfrom Henry and Morrison's Feeds and Feeding, lath edition, as were aiso the coeltlcients of digestibility used in calculating the pounds of digestible nutrients in each UK) pounds of dry matter. The amounts of digestible nutrienta in Sudan grass were calculated from coefflcients given in Table XlII of Iowa Experim«it Station Research Hutloiin No. 46, p. 73, These coefficients are the averages of those obtained by the Maryland experiment station and the Iowa experiment station.

11 appears from the results in Table II that Sudan grass is slightly less digestible than millet, although more digestible than timothy. Sudan grass grown in the dry atmosphere of the Western States has a liigher protein and ash content than that grown in the more humid climate of the Central and Eastern States. Plants grown in the East and cut when in bloom showed 5.85 per cent of crude protein and 5.48 per cent of ash, and those grown in the West and cut at the same stage of maturity had 9.62 per cent of protein and 8.9 per cent of ash. This difference in composition appears to be sufficient to affect the feeding value of the hay.

Feeding experiments conducted by the agricultural experiment stations at Manhattan and Hays, Kans., show that Sudan grass has a somewhat higher feeding value than a consideration of the chemical analyses indicated. In the winter of 1914-15 a test was conducted at the Port Hays experiment station in wintering horses and mules on Sudan grass. The horses and mides were taken from a normal grain ration when work ceased and placed on a ration consisting wholly of roughage. One lot, consisting of four horses and two mules, was fed 20 pounds of Sudan grass hay per head daUy, a second lot of the same kind and number of animals was fed a daily ration of 20 pounds per head of alfalfa hay, and a third lot was fed 20 pounds of kafir stover per head dady. At the end of a 50-day feeding period the lot fed on Sudan gross had lost an average of only 8 pounds per