502 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



ture. This, of course, can only be produced and used during the summer 

 months, and can only be deemed a substitute at that time. However, the 

 comparison will be no less true. It takes two acres of good land, with 

 the best of grass to pasture a cow or steer six months, and even then it 

 needs some other forage crop to supplement it a part of the time during 

 drought. It also needs some grain ration to make either animal do the 

 best, and some other feed must be supplied during the other six months 

 of the year. An acre of good corn will produce twelve tons of silage, 

 which gives four animals thirty pounds each day for six months, or two 

 animals thirty pounds each day for twelve months. In addition they 

 need a little dry fodder and some grain by way of variety. Thus you see 

 that there will be less additional feed to be supplied, that two animals are 

 fed instead of one and that only one-half of the two acres has been used— 

 a saving of land and at the same time a doubling of the number of cattle 

 kept. The use of the silo will double the number of animals and double 

 the amount of butter or beef that can be produced from a given area of 

 land when pasture in summer and dry feed in winter is depended upon. 

 Therefore the silo will in this way double the income of the farmer. We 

 have known of instances where even better results were obtained, espe- 

 cially where silage was used the year round or in connection with a sys- 

 tem of soiling. In any case the silo is a much more economical source 

 of feed than pasture land. 



Now, we do not wish to be understood as advocating a sudden change 

 from the pasture to the silo or that all pasture should be done away with, 

 but we do hold that silage is cheaper than pasture grass upon a farm 

 that is worth $50 or more per acre. 



The productive cost of roots is also much greater than that of silage. 

 At the Pennsylvania Station Armsby found that an acre of corn could be 

 placed in the silo for $21, while to grow and store an acre of roots cost 

 $.50. Thorne, of the Ohio Station, after a careful test of the two crops, 

 said it cost more to grow and harvest 3,000 pounds of dry matter in a 

 root crop than to put up 6,000 pounds in the form of corn silage. And 

 these tests are not far out of the way, as is shown by numerous other 

 similar trials. This relatively high cost of production and the great 

 amount of care demanded by the root crop has given it small amount of 

 favor with the farmer. 



Again, in the case of dry roughage, economy in production stands upon 

 the side of the silo. Some will say upon first thought that hay can be 

 produced more economically and more cheaply than silage. This may be 

 so when we simply look at the cost of growing the two crops, but that 

 is by no means all the expense connected with the two. Surely the use 

 of the land and the cost of storage must be considered in the com])niMsoii. 

 In tiguring the amount of feed of any kind that can be produced from a 

 given area of land it is customary to use dry matter as a basis, as that 

 alone will make up the future feed. Two tons per acre is an extra good 

 crop of hay and the average throughout the country would be nearer a 



