CROPS SUITABLE FOR THE SILO. 333 



fully out in head and was then run through a cutting 

 box. The cattle to which it was fed ate it with 

 evident relish. But while the rye silage was thus 

 being fed, the exposed surface in the silo dried out 

 so quickly between the feeding periods that the pala- 

 tability of the silage was materially lessened, not- 

 withstanding that it was being fed to a considerable 

 number of animals. 



All things considered, there would not seem to 

 be any great necessity for making these crops into 

 silage. The grain is usually more needed than the 

 silage. They can usually be readily cured as hay 

 when wanted in that form, and there is also less 

 hazard on the whole in curing them as hay. 



Field Roots. There would seem to be no good 

 reason why the attempt should be made to keep field 

 roots in the silo under existing conditions, since they 

 can be so easily preserved in cellars and pits. The 

 only exception is the pulp made from sugar beets 

 after the sugar has been extracted from them. And 

 yet it is possible that the day will come when field 

 roots will be run through a pulper and made into 

 silage to secure greater convenience in storing and 

 feeding. They could thus be stored in less space 

 and they would be in condition that would fit them 

 for being fed to any kind of live stock without fur- 

 ther preparation. 



It will perhaps, in all cases, be found more 

 profitable to feed the tops of field roots directly to 

 live stock than *to try to preserve them in the silo. 

 The labor of handling them thus is very much less 

 than the labor of first putting them into the silo and 

 feeding them out again, even though they could be 



