828 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



and many of them remained whole little tubes filled with air 

 and spoiled the ensilage. 



We can take no food value out of the silo that we do not put 

 in, and it must be remembered that corn-fodder is not a complete 

 ration, particularly if it has been grown thick on the ground 

 and cut when immature. The best results from ensilage will 

 probably be when it is used as a substitue for roots, and fed in 

 connection with grain and some hay. Perhaps common field- 

 corn planted and cultivated so as to produce ears and ensilaged 

 when in the roasting-ear stage, would be one of the best crops 

 for ensilage. It would yield a very heavy weight to the acre, 

 and would be more nearly a complete ration than if planted 

 thick and cut green. 



Experiments With Ensilage. The cheap silo built by 

 Professor Henry, which I have described, was filled on September 

 4th and 5th, from a plot of corn grown for the purpose of test- 

 ing the relative value of ensilage and corn-fodder. Eighteen 

 rows, three feet apart, forty-eight rods long, were planted with 

 common yellow corn, and eight rows, fifty rods long, with ensilage 

 corn, making in all about one and a quarter acres. Half of this 

 corn was put in the silo, and at the same time the other half 

 was cut and shocked. The weight of the ensilage was twenty- 

 one thousand two hundred and twenty pounds as put in the silo. 

 On the 25th of October, when the corn-fodder was in good condi- 

 tion, it was bound in bundles and put under cover. It weighed six 

 thousand six hundred and forty-three pounds. The ensilage when 

 first put in filled the silo to the top, but had settled nearly one-half 

 when feeding was begun, the 16th of November. At this date 

 four cows were selected that had been giving milk for nearly 

 the same length of time, and two of them were fed for twenty- 

 one days on ensilage all they would eat, and the other two on 

 the fodder. Then the food was changed, and the two that had 

 eaten fodder were fed ensilage, and vice versa, and after pre- 

 liminary feeding for a week, another trial of twenty -one days 

 was had. These cows were each fed two pounds of bran, two 

 pounds of corn-meal, and three pounds of oil-meal per day, 

 during the trial. 



