222 THE BOOK OF CORN 



SILOING VS FIELD CURING 



The practice of preserving the green corn plant in 

 the silo has grown rapidly in favor, especially with 

 the dairy farmer, It commends itself upon the ground 

 that a large quantity of material may be stored in a 

 comparatively small space. Green and succulent food 

 is thereby provided for the winter months. The green 

 plant is more palatable, the coarser parts of the stalk 

 being much more completely consumed when made 

 into silage. The harvesting is done during the pleas- 

 ant weather in the early fall, and the drudgery of 

 handling dry stover in winter is obviated. It is cheaper 

 on the whole than to be at the expense of husking and 

 grinding the ears and cutting or shredding the stover. 

 It does not appear to affect the digestibility of the 

 material favorably or unfavorably. 



Silage and Field-Cured Corn Fodder — Experi- 

 ments have been made at the Vermont and Wisconsin 

 stations, in which two rows of corn across the field 

 were cut and placed in shocks, while the next two were 

 run through the feed cutter and placed in the silo. By 

 thus alternating until the silo was filled, equal quan- 

 tities of material cut at the same time and from the 

 same field were obtained. The field-cured fodder was 

 later run through the feed cutter and fed in compari- 

 son with the silage to dairy cows, with equal quan- 

 tities of hay and grain.* 



The results at the Vermont station were as fol- 

 lows : The 14,262 pounds green fodder corn when 

 dried, fed with a uniform daily allowance of hay and 

 grain, produced 7688 pounds of milk. The 14,262 

 pounds of green fodder corn converted into silage, and 

 fed with the same daily ration of hay and grain, pro- 

 duced 8525 pounds of milk. 



At the Wisconsin station the results were : From 



•Henry's Feeds and Feeding. 



