98 DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 



calls for considerable extra labor and is attended with special diffi- 

 culties during rainy and stormy weather; it may,, moreover, break 

 down more or less in seasons of extreme drought. For these and 

 other reasons, it has largely been superseded during late years among 

 dairy farmers in eastern and central United States by feeding 

 summer silage. We shall see that the silage can be preserved per- 

 fectly for feeding during the summer months, and it has the advan- 

 tage over soiling crops in at least three days : Convenience of feed- 

 ing, uniformity and palatability (p. 153). The practice of feeding 

 summer silage, either of Indian corn, clover, or 'alfalfa, is, therefore, 

 being adopted by more and more stockmen, and the soiling system 

 is becoming less important with every year. By either system a 

 maximum and uniform production may be secured during the try- 

 ing weather conditions of late summer or early fall, and either 

 system is a great step in advance of the practice still followed by 

 many farmers of leaving stock to subsist on largely burnt-up 

 pastures 6 (Fig. 13). 



QUESTIONS 



1. What is the soiling system? Give its main advantages and its disad- 



vantages. 



2. What is (a) partial soiling? (6) summer silage? 



3. Name some of the more important soiling crops and their characteristics. 



III. HAY CROPS 



Hay Crops. In northern countries, where snow covers the 

 ground during a part of the year, it is necessary to provide winter 

 feed for the stock from forage crops harvested during the summer 

 and fall. The main hay crops are grasses and clover, which are cut 

 at the appropriate time (p. 58) and air-dried (cured), after which 

 they are stored in hay barns or sheds, to be fed as required during the 

 winter and spring, until next year's forage crop became available. 



Hay raising forms an important agricultural industry in our 

 country, the hay crop ranking next to Indian corn in value. Over 

 72,000,000 acres were sown to hay and forage crops in 1909, the 

 most important kinds being timothy and clover mixed, " wild, salt, 

 and prairie hay," and timothy alone. Each of these makes up about 

 25 per cent of the total acreage of hay and forage crops. Hay crops 

 of relatively minor importance, when the whole country is con- 

 sidered, but important in their respective regions, are alfalfa (7 

 per cent of the total acreage), grains- cut green, coarse forage, clover 

 alone, millet, and Hungarian grasses, "other tame or cultivated 

 grasses," and root forage making up the balance of the acreage. 



6 Wisconsin Bulletin 235. 



