FEEDING SILAG1E. 357 



experienced with all the steers confined to the ration 

 of meal and silage. They occasionally got "off their 

 feed." The steers fed on the ration of meal, hay 

 and roots were uniformly healthy and hearty 

 throughout the experiment. With silage less acid, 

 the fatal results chronicled might not have occurred. 

 But since the silage fed was quite as well preserved 

 as corn silage usually is, the inference would seem 

 fair that there is an element of danger in feeding 

 silage in unlimited quantities to farm animals for 

 months in succession. The full details of these 

 experiments are given in Bulletins XLIX, LXI and 

 LXXXII, issued by the aforementioned station. 



While it is impossible to state definitely how 

 much silage may be fed for a prolonged period to 

 cattle without crossing the danger line, in the judg- 

 ment of the Author it is questionable if the amount 

 fed daily to a mature breeding animal of the bovine 

 species should exceed thirty to forty pounds per day. 

 Of course for a limited period it may be safe to feed 

 larger quantities, and it is possible that larger quan- 

 tities than those named have been fed to breeding 

 animals for a period somewhat prolonged without 

 any apparent harm. Nevertheless, the conclusion 

 would seem fair that there is an element of danger 

 in feeding silage in unlimited quantities to animals 

 for months in succession. The most intelligent 

 feeders concur in this view, and it finds farther 

 countenance in the craving which domestic animals 

 manifest for a certain proportion of dry fodder while 

 silage is being fed to them in large quantities. 



Four to five pounds per day may be named as 

 the maximum amounts to be fed to breeding ewes 



