550 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now, I want to say, I consider sound silage us much superior to dry 

 feed as canned fruit is to dry fruit. I made that statement at one time 

 in the presence of Dean Davenport, of our University of Illinois, and at 

 the close of the session he said: "Mr. Gurler, that was a fair assertion," 

 and now I want to impress this on you. The superiority of green food 

 put into a silo, so that it comes out in a sound condition, over the food 

 that you dry in the shock in the tield and keep it in as perfect condition 

 as possible, is very great, and when you get the condition we had last 

 fall, with all the rain we had, the shock corn up in our country Avould not 

 bring a fair price, and I think I am safe in saying that it is damaged 

 fully 50 per cent., the corn that was cut. 



In our early experience, I made the mistake of cutting our corn too 

 early, before the nutritious parts of the corn had developed. The corn is 

 in that condition that the animals would fill themselves with it and bellow 

 with hunger. It was 90 per cent, water, or more; I don't know but 95 

 per cent., and from that we have gone to the other extreme. I think there 

 are many putting up their silage who are letting it mature too far to the 

 point that the animal does not digest nearly all of it. I know that has 

 been my own experience. I went from one extreme pretty well to the 

 other. I now put my corn in the silo so that I find that the cows digest 

 all the corn, and that is in the roasting ear stage. That is the best con- 

 dition, I am satisfied, to get the best results. I can not rely entirely upon 

 the chemist's finding. They find the actual proportion, but they do not 

 always agi'ee with the animal. Nothing to their discredit, at all. When 

 my silage would be gone and I would have to change onto the first cut corn 

 from the field, and I would be forced to make this change before it was 

 Ceady for silage, I always have suffered in the flow of milk. That has 

 been a surprise to me. I thought I would get an increase in the flow of 

 milk, but every year I just meet that same condition; and I am not alone in 

 that. Now, I remember distinctly one farmer that puts up a large amount 

 of silage in McLean County, that has told me repeatedly of having the 

 same experience. The question comes up, why should that be so? I sim- 

 ply have a theory for it. The silage goes through a process similar to the 

 first stages of digestion. I will never forget talking with one of the best 

 physicians in my town. He was a personal friend of mine, and I used to 

 discuss these matters with him and get a good many ideas from him. I 

 was describing to him the different processes and conditions this food 

 went through, and when I got through he says, "Gurler, that is simply 

 the first stages of digestion." It may be there is something comes from 

 the change of food when you make that change. Sometimes one food 

 may be just as good as the other after they become accustomed to it. 

 but I find that even if I put them back on the silage it will take several 

 days to bi-ing them up, l)ut if I keep them on that food (green corn), then 

 they do not come back like when they were on the cured silage. A few 

 days ago I was in Chicago, and there had been a meeting— there were 



