652 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to always buy a recorded male or at least one that can be recorded and 

 then you can keep track of your breeding and avoid using a pig of the 

 same family as the one you just used. 



Hoping that what I have written will furnish some thoughts for dis- 

 cussion, I very much regret that I cannot be present with you and help 

 discuss the subject. 



THE SILO ON THE DAIRY FARM. 



H. C. Carpenter, before Black Hawk County Farmers' Institute. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Silo experience in the United 

 States now covers about twenty-five years, and so far as the economy and 

 advantages of feeding it are concerned, there appears to be a strong con- 

 viction that good silage is a superior and cheap food. After eight years 

 of practical experience with ensilage, I have no hesitation in saying that 

 no dairy farmer in the state can afford to be without a silo. Even on the 

 so-called "natural grass farm," a moderate use or ensilage will prove bene- 

 ficial. Now. if this is true and I am sure that time will demonstrate that 

 it is, then the more rapidly farmers adopt the system, the better. 



More actual food material can be produced from an acre of corn than 

 from any other of our common farm crops. Land capable of producing 

 two tons of hay will, as a rule, produce twenty tons of ensilage having at 

 least 25 per cent of dry matter, or actual food material; 40,000 lbs. of 

 ensilage equals 10,000 lbs. of dry matter, 2 tons of hay equals 3,000 lbs. of 

 dry matter. It is safe to say, therefore, that three times as much sub- 

 stance may be produced from a given area of corn as from a like area of 

 grass. Then green food is especially favorable to the production of milk. 



The succulent pasture grass in May and June is without an equal as 

 a milk producing food. Mangels and other roots, when fed in combina- 

 tion with other fodder, are known to have a very beneficial effect, and with 

 ensilage the same has been observed. The writer in Bulletin No. 11 of 

 the New Hampshire Experiment station says: "There are those who say 

 that a pound of digestible matter in one substance, is as good as a pound 

 in any and all other substances, and that succulence adds nothing to the 

 value of food." This I do not regard as proven by practice. In this bulle- 

 tin it was shown that 100 lbs. of digestible matter in a ration made up of 

 skim milk and corn meal was equal to 146.6 lbs. of digestible matter in 

 ration chemically identical but made up of corn meal and middlings. 

 Practically there can be no doubt that a pound of food material in the skim 

 milk ration was superior to a pound in the mixed grain ration, and I be- 

 lieve this was due largely to the favorable condition in which the digestive 

 and assimilative organs were kept by the skim milk ration. This being 

 true, I see no reason why pasture grass, roots, or ensilage may not be like- 

 wise more valuable than dried fodder. In fact, I am convinced that foods 

 containing a large per cent of water keep the system in such tone that it 

 is able to make better use of the food digested. 



