280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



crop lies in its immunity from frost. I have had barley and 

 peas continue to grow and keep green after hard frosts were 

 of nightly occurrence, and even until the ground froze stiff. 



Sumtner Silage. — The very decided advantages of sum- 

 mer silage have been lately strongly impressed upon my 

 mind. Unquestionably corn silage is the most economical 

 roughage that the dairyman can feed. Its desirability as a 

 winter fodder has been thoroughly demonstrated, and must 

 be acknowledged by all but the wilfully ignorant. It is 

 only within the last two or three years that the practica- 

 bility of feeding summer silage has been made apparent. 



The writer is lacking in personal experience with summer 

 silage, although he confesses to having caught the fever, and 

 proposes to build a silo for summer feeding in the near 

 future. The unexceptional testimony of dairymen who 

 have fed silaije during; the summer months is that of great 

 advantage over any other plan. 



Summer droughts and death and taxes are about equally 

 certain. As Governor Hoard says, we can't escape the last 

 two, " but with good wit we may dodge some of the effects 

 of the former." The soiling system outlined is in compari- 

 son with silage feeding both cumbersome and expensive. 

 More than that, it is the testimony of those who have tried 

 silao^e feedino- durins; the summer months that their cows 

 keep up a uniform flow of milk in spite of trying conditions, 

 and always relish their silage. 



A western creamery owner gathered som*e facts concern- 

 ing the shrinkage of milk among his dairies during the 

 drought of 1899. He found that in some dairies, where no 

 supplement to the pasture feed was provided, there was a 

 falling oft' of (30 per cent in the milk at the time of the 

 drought ; in dairies where soiling crops had been provided 

 to tide over the season there was a shrinkage of 15 to 40 per 

 cent, but still a shrinkage in every case ; in two or three 

 dairies where an adequate supply of silage was provided 

 and fed during the dry months there was actually no shrink- 

 age at all. 



Who does not realize that, if there is anything that will 

 keep up the flow of milk during August and September, the 

 dairymen ought to have it? Just the season when milk is 



