356 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO, 



fattened. Something, however, depends upon the 

 materials included in the silage. 



Quantities of Silage to Feed. Much difference 

 of opinion exists as to the quantities of silage that 

 may be fed with advantage. Some authorities claim 

 that it may be made the sole food of animals for 

 weeks and months in succession. That is not the 

 view of the Author. Much of course will depend 

 upon the character of the silage. When it has been 

 well preserved, the silage is not markedly acid, but 

 it is acid in some degree. Now that is not the con- 

 dition in which nature provides green food for live 

 stock, hence it does not seem wise to confine animals 

 to a diet so acid. To test this question, the Author 

 fed steers that were being fattened on silage and 

 meal for a period averaging about 140 days and 

 during three successive experiments. 



These experiments were conducted at the gov- 

 ernment experiment station at Guelph, Ontario, 

 Can. The first experiment began in the autumn 

 of 1889. Two steers were thus fed each winter. 

 They were pitted against an equal number of steers 

 that were fed meal, an average of thirty-three pounds 

 of corn silage per day and all the cut hay they would 

 eat in addition. A third lot of two steers were fed 

 meal, cut hay and field roots. The amount of meal 

 fed was practically the same in each instance. Of 

 the six steers that were fed all the silage they would 

 consume in addition to the meal, two died before the 

 experiments were completed. The veterinarian of 

 the station reported that death resulted from serious 

 derangement in the digestive organs caused by the 

 acid in the silage. More or less trouble was also 



