SILAGE SOILAGE THE PREPARATION OF FEED 271 



may increase its value for fattening cattle and sheep 15 to 25 per ct. 88 

 (730, 834) Hay can be cut sufficiently fine for most purposes at low cost 

 on the farm by means of a silage cutter equipped with an alfalfa screen. 

 Cut hay and straw are often used in establishments where large numbers 

 of horses are kept. (461) Little information is available concerning the 

 saving thru cutting or grinding hay for dairy cows. As pointed out 

 later, it is sometimes advantageous to cut legume hay for brood sows. 

 (1016) The value of alfalfa meal has been previously discussed. (344) 



425. Cooking feed. In 1854 Professor Mapes voiced the popular 

 opinion of those days when he wrote : 34 ' ' Raw food is not in condition 

 to be approximated to the tissues of animal life. The experiment often 

 tried has proved that 18 or 19 Ibs. of cooked corn are equal to 30 Ibs. of 

 raw corn for hog feed. ' ' Numerous careful trials have since shown, how- 

 ever, that, in general, cooking either grain or roughage does not in- 

 crease its digestibility or nutritive value, but may even decrease the 

 digestibility of the protein. For example, in trials by Ladd at the 

 New York (Geneva) Station 35 the digestibility of the crude protein in 

 uncooked corn meal was 68.6 per ct. and in the same corn meal after 

 cooking only 60.5 per ct. The digestibility of the crude protein in clover 

 hay and cottonseed meal was decreased similarly by cooking. 



426. Steaming roughage for cattle. Eighty years ago and even later, 

 there could be found in this country establishments more or less elaborate 

 used for steaming or boiling straw, corn stalks, hay, etc., for cattle 

 feeding; it is doubtful if there is to-day a single one for this purpose. 

 Feeding steamed hay to oxen at Poppelsdorf, Germany, 36 showed that 

 steaming rendered the components of hay, especially the crude protein, 

 less digestible. "When dry hay was fed, 46 per ct. of the crude protein 

 was digested, while in steamed hay only 30 per ct. was digested. The 

 advice given years ago by the editor of an agricultural journal is as 

 sound today as when given: 37 "The advantages are very slight and not 

 worth the trouble of either building the fire, cutting the wood, or erecting 

 the apparatus, to say nothing of all these combined, with danger and 

 insurance added.*' 



427. Cooking feed for swine. While cooking feed for cattle was aban- 

 doned years ago, it is still practiced to some extent for swine. Fortu- 

 nately the matter has been carefully studied by several experiment 

 stations and definite conclusions reached. The most extended trial was 

 one running 9 years at the Maine Agricultural College, 38 in which 

 cooked and uncooked corn meal were fed. In each case there was a loss 



^Potter and Withycombe, Oregon Sta., information to the authors; Morton, 

 Colo. Bui. 187. 



'"Trans. Am. Inst, 1854, p. 373. 



M N. Y. (Geneva) Rpt. 1885. 



^Hornberger, Landw. Jahrb., 8, p. 933; Armsby, Manual of Cattle Feeding, 

 p. 266. 



"Country Gentleman, 1861, p. 112. 



38 Ann. Rpt. of Trustees of the Maine State Col. of Agr., 1878. 



