DAIRY MEETING. 1 55 



7 steers in a lot, during a period of 140 days the cost of feed 

 for those steers — three sections of 7 steers each — fed grain was 

 $694.50. The cost of feeding three sections of 7 each, on silage, 

 wa^ $390.43. The average daily gain on the grain ration was 

 2.13 pounds; on the silage ration, 2.37 pounds. The cost of 

 100 pounds of gain in the grain ration was $10.21 ; the cost of 

 100 pounds gain on the silag2 ration was $9.04. 



Growing horses and even work horses can be fed silage to 

 good advantage. You men who attended the Live Stock Breed- 

 ers' Association meeting, listened to a discussoin of this point 

 by George M. Rummell, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, who strongly advised 

 feeding silage to horses. 



Sheep can be fed silage economically. I have found several 

 flocks about New England, in places where the root crop has 

 been given up, and the only succulent feed the sheep received 

 was silage. j\Ien who are feeding silage to sheep most suc- 

 cessfully are not feeding over 2^/3 pounds per hundred weight 

 per day. 



Those are a few of the facts that can be brought up in favor 

 of silage, a few figures that can be shown as to the cost of the 

 silo. There are other advantages. One is economy of space 

 for the storing of the material grown, hence making smaller 

 buildings necessary. There is less loss in the curing of corn 

 in the silo than there is in drying in the fields under most ideal 

 conditions. Alore cattle can be kept on the same area where 

 silage is fed. Crops not fit for hay can often be made into 

 good silage. The silo makes it possible for one to feed succu- 

 lent feeds through the winter, and also to have some good 

 material to supplement the fast deteriorating pastures during 

 August and September. 



These facts ought to be of sufficient importance to influence 

 every dairyman in Maine to build and maintain a silo on his 

 farm. 



DISCUSSION. 



Ques. What about Japanese millet as a silage crop? 



Ans. I have found men in the State using it both chopped 

 and whole, and they have been very well satisfied with it, it not 

 being a hollow-stemmed plant. The trouble with crops with a 



