TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 485 



by sheep. Attention should be given the crop at this time because if the 

 crop were to be cut too green the seeds will mold and lower the feeding 

 value. Properly cured oat and pea hay is a most excellent feed during win- 

 ter months for the breeding flock, and it makes them thrifty rather than 

 fat. The yield per acre is quite heavy and the mixture affords the proper 

 winter change from the regular feeds. This same mixture can "be grown 

 to feed exhibition sheep and cut when desired before ripe for feeding in- 

 side. 



CORN SILAGE. 



With American breeders the use of some kind of succulent feed nearly 

 the whole year round has become quite general. It helps to keep up the 

 appetite and general condition of our flocks. Although roots are not so 

 successfully grown as in Europe, corn takes their place and furnishes a 

 larger and cheaper supply of food material from a given area than any 

 other crop. It will yield about twice as much dry matter as a crop of 

 roots grown on the same land, and it has been found by feeding experi- 

 ments that the dry matter in corn silage gives as good results as that in 

 roots. All breeders who can should have a silo because silage is so much 

 more palatable to sheep than dry fodder and they will consume a larger 

 amount of dry matter in that form and it is more easily digested. The 

 use of silage as a succulent food for sheep has given most favorable results 

 and experiments in fattening sheep have shown that corn silage gives 

 better results than rutabagas or Swede turnips. We believe that it is the 

 most desirable succulent food produced in the corn belt for both breeding 

 and fattening sheep. IMost of the adverse reports on silage are due to the. 

 use of green immature plants and such silage apart from being sour is of 

 very low feeding value as compared with that made from the crop which 

 was well matured before being harvested for the silo. 



Indian corn is best suited for the purpose because when cut it packs 

 very closely in a solid mass and keeps well. Like roots silage makes a 

 watery carcass which is soft to the touch and this is a desirable condition 

 in all breeding sheep also fattening ones during the early stages of that 

 process. For breeding sheep the less tense flesh, a natural result of silage 

 feeding, is more conducive to vigorous young at "birth and to their hearty 

 maintenance afterward than dry feed continually throughout the winter. 

 Feeding only dry forage tends to produce a dry firm flesh — a condition cer- 

 tainly not conducive to the highest degree of health in the flock. Too many 

 flocks give this dry harsh appearance in winter and it proves a loss to the 

 owner in both the lamb crop and the wool. Silage tends to keep up the 

 same condition that is noticed when the sheep are out on green grass in 

 the summer, and the cost of its making is not very great. It also takes the 

 place of much grain which would otherwise be required. 



INDIAN COBN. 



Corn as a grain is much relished by sheep and is more palatable than 

 others which turn to a sticky mass during mastication. It has no equal 

 for fattening but owing to its low per cent of protein and ash, it is not 

 well suited for developing young or "breeding sheep which require food that 



