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any farm crop will grow, ami ou the light soils aud iu dry years it yields more to the 

 acre than corn; 20 to 25 tons is not an unusual yield on the best lands. Estimating 

 man aud horse labor at f 1 per day each, the crop for silage, either corn or sorghum, 

 may be grown, cut down, run through the cutter, aud stored iu the silo ready to feed 

 at a total cost of less thau $1.50 per tou. * » * For the reasons set forth we have 

 paid e8i)ecial attention to silage and cotton hulls iu owr feeding experiments, and 

 from the foregoing it will be observed that we have in cotton hulls, for cattle feeders 

 in the vicinity of oil-mills, cheap, rough fodder for feeding a large number of cattle; 

 and by growing silage we cau produce cheap feed in almost any part of the State, and 

 in unlimited quantity, which, iu addition to our corn, hay, and other forage crops, 

 should enable us to fatten all cattle before they are slaughtered or leave the State. 



In three of tbe pens molasses was added to cotton-seed hulls and meal, 

 to make the ration more palatable. " The molasses was diluted with 

 three parts of water to one of molasses, and sprinkled over the food at 

 the rate of one half pint of molasses per head per day." In another pen 

 molasses was used with silage. The conclusion from this experiment 

 was that " cheap molasses may be profitably added to cotton hulls and 

 cotton-seed meal, but not to silage, which is already sweet or has an 

 acid flavor which makes it palatable to the animal." 



Though the corn fodder used was cured and stored under the best 

 conditions, only 47 per cent of that placed in the manger was con- 

 sumed, while 91.8 per cent of the silage fed to pen 3, during the same 

 period, was consumed. 



Our two experiments seem to show quite conclusively that cotton seed, at $7 per 

 ton, is a much cheaper feeding stuff than cotton-seed meal, at $20, if calculated on 

 cost of food per pound gain made by steers; but, on the other hand, steers fed on cot- 

 ton-seed meal gain so much more when fed eighty to ninety days, that the extra cost is 

 partially made up in increased value of the steers due to better condition. * » • 



Conchisiona. — The experiments for the two winters show that (1) of our different 

 cattle foods, a ration made up of cottou hulls and cotton-seed meal is equal, if not 

 superior, to a ration of any other two feeding stuffs used for fattening cattle, but a 

 cheaper ration may be compounded of silage and cotton seed, or of corn, hay, and 

 cotton seed, at the prices given. 



(2) The addition of some other feeding stuff to the cottou hull aud cotton-seed meal 

 ration makes it more palatable to cattle, and produces better results in gain in 

 weight. Corn meal, hay, silage, and molasses, each one added to cotton hulls and 

 cotton-seed meal, made larger gains than hulls and meal alone, in the order named, 

 molasses giving the best result. 



(3) Of the several rations containing silage, silage with cotton hulls, and cotton- 

 seed meal gave the best gains; silage with cotton-seed meal came second; silage 

 with boiled cotton seed third ; silage with corn-and-cob meal, and cotton seed meal 

 fourth; silage with corn-and-cob meal fifth. Dry corn fodder did not give as large 

 gain as silage. Molasses did not improve the ration containing silage. 



(4) Cotton hulls and cotton-seed meal, with hay, corn, silage, and molasses, gave 

 larger gains than silage and cotton-seed meal, or silage and cotton seed. 



(5) Cotton-seed meal, with other feeding stuffs aud fodders, gave larger gains thau 

 cotton seed with other feeding stuffs and fodders. 



(6) Cotton seed, with other feeding stuffs and fodders, made gains at less cost for 

 food than cotton-seed meal with other feeding stuffs and fodders. 



(7) After feeding any of the rations used without change for sixty days, the daily 

 gain diminished, until finally, in some pens, it ceased entirely ; but with a change of 

 ration, the daily gain in all of the pens was largely increased, in some pens exceed- 

 ing the average of the first period of feeding. 



