Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


countries. Observations in Florida cause one to question the
toxicity of the two latter species, since seeds of both have been
fed to chickens, and cattle ate the green forage, hay, and silage of
C. incana without visible ill effects. At several places in Florida
cattle have been known to eat C. striata in appreciable quantities
without harmful effects.
 Toxicity of C. spectabilis for Cattle.-In this cooperative in-
 vestigation of crotalarias as possible forage crops, observations
 were made of 11 species between the years 1931 and 1935, as
 green forage, silage, or artificially dried hays. Not all of the 11
 species of crotalaria investigated were offered to cattle in the
 three kinds of roughage-green forage, silage, and hay. The
 kinds of roughage to which the cattle had access during the
 palatability trials, are listed in Table 26.

 TABLE 26.-RELATIVE LEVELS OF THE CROTALARIAS EATEN BY CATTLE WHEN GIVEN
 ACCESS TO THEM.
 Class of Roughage Offered
 Artificially
 Species Green Forage Dried Hay Silage
 1931 1932 1931 1932 1932 1933
C. anagyroides H. B. K. xxx xx xx
C. goreensis Guill. and Perr. .. .. .. .. xx
C. grantiana Harvey xxx x xx xxx xx
C. incana L. xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx .
C. intermedia Kotschy xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
C. lanceolata E. Mey x xxx xxxx xxxx .. xxxx
C. maxillaris Klotsch xxx xx
C. retusa L. x .. ..
C. spectabilis Roth xx x x xxx xxx
C. striata D. C. x x x x x
C. usaramoensis Baker x xxx xxx xxxx xxxx
 Species not available.
x Available, but not eaten.
xx Eaten sparingly.
xxx Eaten in reasonable amounts.
xxxx Eaten in considerable amounts.

 Cattle were not observed to show abnormal symptoms (6)
in any of the feeding trials during which C. spectabilis was refused.
During the fall and winter of 1932 two yearling grade Hereford
steers and one heifer were used in a series of trials testing the
relative palatability of crotalaria hays. The consumption of
C. spectabilis during these trials is given in Table 27. This hay
was harvested and dried artificially on September 9, 1932. These
three animals were the first observed in the investigation to eat