14 SILOS: CONSTRUCTION AND SERVICE 



nor is it limited to any certain food stuff. It merely occurs 

 more frequently in some foods than others, due to their 

 nature and method of storing. 



"Causes. Forage poisoning is likely to appear whenever 

 moldy grain or fodder is fed to horses or mules, but it does 

 not follow in every case where such food is given. More- 

 over, it very seldom affects cattle. Horses and mules may 

 sometimes be fed for a considerable time on fodder contain- 

 ing more or less mold without sickness while in other cases 

 a comparatively small amount of such feed will cause death 

 in a short time. Danger lies in the use of fermented foods, 

 also, on account of poisons developed in fermentation. 

 Some plants are likewise poisonous at a certain stage of their 

 growth or when partially wilted. This is true of sorghum, 

 particularly the second growth, which in some cases causes 

 almost instantaneous death. 



"There are several molds which grow on food materials 

 under certain conditions which are more or less injurious. 

 The most common are the black mold, the blue mold and 

 the green mold. They are found most frequently in ensilage, 

 corn, hay, oats and ground feeds. Moisture favors their 

 development on all food stuffs. 



"Ensilage. Ensilage is one of the most important and 

 valuable foods available to the Iowa farmer, but it is often 

 responsible for forage poisoning. Sweet ensilage is of proved 

 worth as a feed for horses as well as for cattle, but speaking 

 generally ensilage feeding is attended by some dangers that 

 the owners of silos should know. Ensilage contains the 

 necessary moisture and, in most cases, the required heat, to 

 favor the development of molds. On this account it is more 

 often a cause of forage poisoning than other food stuffs. Per- 

 haps 80 to 90 per cent of the outbreaks reported to this station 

 come from feeding moldy ensilage. The quantity of mold 



