CROPS SUITABLE FOR THE SILO. 323 



viz. : Corn, sorghum, non-saccharine sorghum, legu- 

 minous plants other than clover, plants of the clover 

 family, millets, the common cereals, field roots, rape 

 and sunflowers. With the exception of sunflowers, 

 the Author believes the above have been named in 

 about the order of relative suitability, giving corn 

 the first place. 



Corn. Corn is pre-eminently the soiling plant 

 of the United States and Canada. It would prob- 

 ably be correct to say that more corn is made into 

 silage in these respective countries than all other 

 crops combined. The high adaptation of this plant 

 for the silo is based on such considerations as its wide 

 distribution, the certainty with which it may be 

 grown, the ease with which it is handled and cured, 

 the large amount of food which it produces and the 

 high character of the same, the aid which it renders 

 in preserving other crops put into the silo along with 

 it, and the difficulty frequently experienced in curing 

 corn out of the silo. It is distributed so widely that 

 it may be grown for silage in nearly every state in 

 the Union and in nearly every province of Canada. 

 Even where it does not become sufficiently advanced 

 to produce soft grain it may be cured in the silo. It 

 is one of the most certain crops of the farm, and 

 when grown for silage, it is even more certain than 

 when grown mainly for the grain product, since it 

 may be cured in the silo before it is fully matured. 



All things considered, no other crop is more 

 easily handled in the green form, and none have been 

 cured in the silo with so much certainty, so small a 

 number of failures and so little loss. Likewise con- 

 sidered, no other crop produces so large an amount 



