SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 721 



pop-corn grown is consumed east of the Mississippi river, although there 

 is hardly a town in he United States of 50,000 population but what will 

 consume one to three car-loads a year. We ship corn from one coast to 

 the other, and from Minneapolis on the north to Galveston on the south. 



F— Regarding the Silo. 



CROPS FOR THE SILO, COST OP FILLING, AND EFFECT OF SILAGE 

 ON THE FLAVOR OF MILK. 



By Wilber J. Fraser, Chief in Dairy Husbandry, University of Illinois, 

 Experiment Station Bulletin No. 101. 



ADVANTAGE OF SILAGE. 



> 



The digestive organs of animals i.hat chew the cud are so formed as to 

 require comparatively juicy and bulky food. The cow cannot, therefore, 

 thrive on exclusixely dry food so well as can the horse. The nearest an 

 ideal food that can be obtained for the dairy cow is good pasture; but 

 for more than six months in the year green pasture is not available in 

 Illinois. The best substitutes to use during this period are corn silage 

 and such roots as mangels and turnips. Corn yields an average of twice 

 as much dry matter per acre as do root crops; and, since the latter 

 require much more labor, which in this country is relatively expensive, 

 silage is far more economical. 



Making corn into silage is a means of preserving the grain as well 

 as the stalk in the best possible condition for feeding and without the 

 expense of shelling and grinding. In feeding whole corn, either in the 

 ear or shelled, many of the kernels are not digested. With silage, the 

 grain being eaten with the roughage, nearly all the kernels are broken 

 during mastication, and, since they are somewhat soft, are practically 

 all digested. 



By the use of the silo the com is removed from the field at a time 

 when no injury is done the land by cutting it up while soft. As the corn 

 is cut before the blades are dry enough to shatter, there is no waste 

 from weathering, and both stalk and grain being in good conidtion, 

 the whole crop is consumed by the stock; while with dry shock corn a 

 large pecentage of the leaves and butts of the stalk is wasted. 



It has been determined that one cubic foot of hay in the mow con- 

 tains about 4.a pounds of dry matter, and that a cubic foot of silage in 



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