Fodder

Fodder, the food of domestic herbivorous animals, provided for them through human industry. In England the term is usually applied to dried' vegetable produce, such as hay and straw. Domestic herbivorous quadrupeds obtain the chief part of their food from the grasses, which are eaten when fresh and green - Italian rye-grass, timothy, etc. Many of these grasses are artificial, and include such Leguminoscv as clover, vetches, lucerne, etc., which, when eaten green, are called forage crops. Clover and cabbage are especially valuable. The winter food of these animals is furnished by dry fodder, roots, and seeds. Dry fodder consists of straw, the dried stems of cereals and leguminous plants; and hay, dried grasses which are grown especially for this purpose. Hay is more nutritious than straw, because it is cut while the plant is still young, and contains a large amount of sap. Some kinds of straw, however, especially peahaulms and oat-straw, are little inferior to hay, if they are cut early and protected from wet. Hay is, to a large extent, composed of leguminosae, as these are sown among the natural grasses, and cut and dried at the same time. The number and proportion of the ingredients is consequently very variable. The herbage of water-grass meadows is considered superior to that of dry meadows.