The Question Box. 29 



Question. — Is ensilage alone a good food for a milch cow ? 



Mr. Goodrich. — Xo. It does not contain protein enough. Some 

 good clover hay should be fed with it. You may keep a cow a 

 year on ensilage or other starch foods, but, at the end of the year, 

 she will not be any better, nor as good as she was when you began 

 feeding her, because she has had to take protein from her body to 

 maintain life, thus causing her to become thin in flesh. 



Mr. Rice. — It is a wasteful process to undertake to keep a cow 

 on corn fodder alone, or with corn meal mixed with it. The cow 

 cannot eat and digest enough of such foods, therefore, when an 

 excess is fed, a portion of them is lost. It is much more profitable, 

 and much better for the cow, to balance such foods with some of 

 the protein foods, such as clover, bran, gluten, oil meal or cotton 

 seed meal; but I should not feed a cow more than two pounds of 

 col ton seed meal per day. You can afford to pay $20 per ton for 

 gluten feed to mix with your corn. If you can get 45 cents per 

 bushel, sell a portion of the corn and invest in gluten feed at $20, 

 and I should add some wheat bran. Of course, all depends on 

 the quality of your coarse fodder. 



Question. — Who has had experience with corn ensilage as a sum- 

 mer food for cows ? 



A Farmer. — I had a little that was left over from spring. 

 When I began feeding it in summer I found a little spoiled on top; 

 the rest was as perfect as when it went into the silo. 



Mr. Smith. — We have fed ensilage in summer to our cows at 

 the Geneva Station ; we had some left over which we covered with 

 straw until we wanted it. That was two years ago; last year we 

 did practically the same. Our cows got the ensilage, the young 

 slock the alfalfa. I think it is only a question of time when the 

 dairymen will abandon soiling crops and substitute the summer 

 silo for them. 



(Question. — Which is the best ensilage cutter? 



Mr. Smith. — There are a large number of them, and all are 

 good. So it would be a hard matter to say which one was better 

 than another. 



A Farmer. — Why not use a shredder? 



Mr. Woodward. — I would not give a continental for the dif- 

 ference in cutters if they only do the work. We cut our ensilage 

 half an inch in length, and I believe that ensilage cut at that length 

 is fully as good as shredded ensilage. 



Mr. Dawley. — Our ensilage has been shredded during the last 

 four years. I am very sure I can get one-fifth more shredded than 



