286 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



be cut until quite mature; it must be free from dust, mold, or 

 smut, and must be fed in limited quantities, a maximum amount 

 of work horses being one and one-fifth pounds per 100 pounds live 

 weight. 



In trials at the Illinois station it was found that when alfalfa is 

 fed as the roughage part of a ration of farm horses at hard work 

 less grain is necessary to prevent them from losing weight than 

 when timothy hay is fed. In this test there was a saving of about 

 22 per cent grain. Though too short to be conclusive, these tests 

 indicate that medium horses at hard work can be maintained quite 

 satisfactorily, for a short time at least, on corn fed in conjunction 

 with alfalfa hay at a saving in cost. 



Grain hay is much used as a horse feed on the Pacific coast 

 and in the South, and millet, sweet and non-saccharine sorghums to 

 some extent in the western States. Millet cut at the beginning of 

 bloom and well cured makes hay of an excellent quality that is 

 nearly equal to timothy hay in feeding value. The danger of pastur- 

 ing horses on second-growth sorghum on account of the possibility 

 of prussic acid poisoning has been referred to in another place 

 (p. 110). The grain sorghums are often cut and fed to horses, 

 " heads and all," without threshing the grain (p. 174). 



Silage for Horses. Corn and alfalfa silage may be safely fed 

 to horses in moderate quantities, provided certain precautions are 

 taken : It must be made from at least fairly mature corn and be 

 well preserved; silage exposed long to the air before feeding, or 

 frozen or moldy silage, must not be fed to either horses or mules, 

 and the latter kind of silage had better not be fed to any class of 

 farm stock. Good silage is one of the cheapest and best kinds of 

 feed for horses, especially for brood mares and work horses that 

 are doing light work. It should only be fed with dry roughage and 

 a little at first, say five pounds per head daily, increasing the allow- 

 ance, as the horse becomes accustomed to it, to 10 or 20 pounds as 

 a maximum feed per day. With plenty of grain on the cornstalks, 

 horses are kept in good condition on a ration of 20 pounds silage 

 and 10 pounds hay for each 1000 pounds live weight. 12 



Roots may be fed to advantage in small quantities, 10 pounds 

 being a maximum allowance per day. " An addition of 5 or 6 

 pounds of carrots to the daily feed ration of ordinary working horses 

 will almost always be of benefit ; and 3 pounds a day will not be too 

 much for race horses, even in a high state of training. It is safest 



12 Farmers' Bulletin 578; see also Pennsylvania Bulletin 117. 



