The result of a long series of experiments in feeding milcl 

 cattle at Chicago was also strongly in favor of the use of ensilage, 

 not only as regards the increased quantity of milk obtained, but also 

 in the saving in the cost of feed. For fattening purposes it was 

 found that corn or m li/e silage was deficient in the quantity of fat 

 producing food and what is known as Robertson's mixture has 

 been found to give good results. It consists of whole plants of 

 Indian corn, horse beans (Fabcr vulgar is) and the heads of sun- 

 flowers. This mixture should be composed of about ten tons of 

 Indian corn to two and a half tons of horse beans and one ton of 

 sunflower heads. To obtain these proportions a quarter of an acre 

 of sunflowers and half an acre of horse beans should be grown for 

 each acre of mai/e. It gives good results for either milch or store 

 cattle, but, for the latter, requires some meal added to it. Many 

 farmers object to the making of silage on the score of expense, 

 thinking it is necessary to make expensive pits. This is a great 

 mistake. First-class silage can be made in stacks with very homely 

 appliances. At the same time there is no doubt that a pit is most 

 convenient, nor is it at all necessary to go to much expense in the 

 construction thereof. In good solid clay lands, if not wet, only a 

 foot or two of the top need be boarded up, or waste timber from 

 the saw mills can be used for slabbing if the soil requires it. For 

 weighting many contrivances are used, some very expensive if not 

 very effective, others very simple and effective also ; such as 

 throwing back some of the earth, using logs or posts and rails. 

 One of the most convenient forms of applying pressure, if a wind- 

 mill is available, is to have several iron tanks and let the mill pump 

 water into them, this answers for either stacks or pits, and when it 

 is desired to empty them the water can be easily allowed to run 

 away, using a piece of hose as a syphon. 



There is another advantage in having a pit, that is, the green 

 fodder can be chaffed and by means of a traveller carried direct 

 into the pit, and where coarse iodcler such as mai/e, amber cane, 

 sugar cane, etc., is used, this is a great improvement, for not only 

 is the silage more easily taken out, but it loses much less than 

 if the green stuff had not been chaffed, as in that case it would not 

 have lain close together, and all the spaces would have been full of 

 air, and there would probably be bad spots in it. In a properly 

 constructed pit there is practically no loss, except, perhaps, a little 

 on the very top, and even that can be prevented by pulling a little 

 straw over it and under the weights. 



Stacks have this advantage, they can be built anywhere that is 

 most convenient for feeding the cattle, and require no expense to 

 speak of in their preparation. It must be remembered, however, 

 that in all stacks there is more waste all round, unless protected by 

 straw or some other material on the top also. 



Stacks should be built wide and high, for after a few days the 

 green stuff shrinks greatly, and a stack loft, high the day it is built 



