SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 769 



the greatest success in these lines irrespective of the amount of work 

 and attention to business involved, and who at the same time has a pride 

 in building his lands up to and maintaining them in the highest possible 

 state of fertility, the silo, in my judgment, presents opportunities and 

 possibilities not afforded by any other methods known to the business. 



CORN SILAGE AS A DUAL-PURPOSE FEED. 



Brenton Steel, Madison County Indiana in Breeders' Gazette. 



I have noticed repeatedly that writers in giving reports of feeding 

 tests and in reviewing the relative merits of different kinds of feeds, 

 corn silage is always classed as roughage, never being given the distinc- 

 tion of containing a large per cent of concentrates. I have never 

 attempted a chemical analysis of the different kinds of feeds, and do not 

 claim to possess a technical knowledge of the subject about which I am 

 asking information. 



Our corn silage hereabouts is made from corn that is in the dent, 

 and that is often too dry for nice fodder, is very heavy, for the corn 

 from which it is made will often make 60 bushels per acre, and cattle, 

 hogs and korses as well as sheep are fed very liberally of it, the only 

 trouble being to get them to eat anything else after having once had a 

 taste of the silage. Consequently, the query would naturally present it- 

 self, Why should corn silage be classed simply as a roughage? 



A friend of mine recently sold a carload of steers that brought the 

 top of the market, and were the subject of unusual comment on account 

 of being so nearly full /fatted or what is termed full fed. These steers 

 had nothing in the world but corn silage and pure, clean water. I wrote 

 a communication to an Indiana paper last spring and described a similar 

 circumstances where steers had been full fed , by the same man but it 

 was taken as a "fish story" presumably, for no one ever asked for proof 

 of the assertions. 



I weighed a stalk of corn last fall with one large ear of corn on it, 

 just as it was brought from the field to be cut into silage, and stalk and 

 all weighed 9 % pounds, and the ear alone weighed 4 pounds and was 

 hard and thoroughly dented. Farmers had quit cutting fodder because 

 the corn was too dry, but the man putting up this silage was delayed in 

 getting his cutter and could not cut any sooner, though he now claims 

 it was an act of Providence, for all the papers, experiment stations and 

 so-called experts had always claimed that the corn must be cut while in 

 the milk or dough and while the corn was very green. 



Why not have a sort of an overhauling of this silage question, especial- 

 ly as to corn silage? I am thoroughly convienced that there is entirely 

 too much theory and not enough of practical observation and actual experi- 

 ence connected with what our writers and so-called agriculturiBts a^e 



49 



