TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 495 



silage and silage which had become spoiled from contact with the air, 

 Th:'s sort of feed proved a failure in most cases and the silo was not a 

 success. But when the deep, air-tight silo was brought into use, the pros- 

 pect became much brighter. 



I believe that the greatest fault in silage making at the present time is 

 the putting up of too green corn, the use of corn which produces. great 

 tonnage, but docs not get mature enough. This causes too much acidity 

 which is detrimental for feeding purposes. Investigation would show 

 that this sort of corn has been used in nearly every instance where 

 failure has been pronounced. I might give a brief outline of our ex- 

 perience with corn silage the past twelve years in feeding sheep and 

 horses. 



The first year we filled the silo with whole corn, which was planted 

 thick in the rows and harvested when just beginning to glaze. The leaves 

 and stalks were filled with sap, being grown en rich loamy soil. Although 

 it gave us a heavy yield, the results were not the best. We started feed- 

 ing it cautiously to all of our sheep, but when over one and one-half 

 pounds were fed it had a laxative tendency and in some cases the younger 

 growing lambs would appear sickly, showing papery colored skins and an 

 unthrifty appearance generally. I might state that we fed clear hay and 

 ration of oa''s and corn in connection with the silage. 



The following year a more mature crop was harvested; and as a result 

 the apparent bad effects of the previous year were eliminated, and a two- 

 pound ration was fed, showing good gains and thrift in the entire flock. 



Snce the first two seasons cur corn has been run through the cutter, not 

 because we thought it made better feed, but we could handle the crop at 

 feeding much easier with practically no more expense. 



We are now feeding sheep of all ages corn which had ripened enough 

 for husking and is a fairly early maturing variety with leaves partially 

 dried. Pregnant ewes and young stock received two pounds per head daily 

 and ewes suckling lambs from two and one-half to three pounds, with the 

 best results. I believe we could profitably feed all of this well-matured 

 silage our sheep would consume with excellent results. Where silage has 

 been pronounced a failure as sheep feed, nine cases In ten it has been 

 caused by filling the silo with immature corn. 



The experiment stations have been doing excellent work in carry- 

 ing on experiments with the feeding of corn silage in connection with 

 other feeds to sheep. Among the most valuab'e are those carried on at 

 Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Iowa, in most cases demonstrating that 

 good silage was the most economical mutton-producing feed when fed in 

 connection with other feeds. 



The Illinois station is now conducting a second experiment with corn 

 silage for fattening lamts along the same lines as one completed two years 

 ago, when silage was substituted for corn and clover hay, with the addi- 

 tion that two lots are fed entirely without clover hay, but this is substi- 

 tuted with other nutrigenous foods. Professor Coffey states these lambs 

 are as healthy and making as good growth as the others, although the 

 experiment is not completed. 



