134 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



with good sound dry hay and some grain. As corn 

 silage from well-matured corn has in it a good deal 

 of grain when it is fed, the rest of the ration should 

 be of wheat bran, oilmeal and clover or alfalfa hay. 

 Since the foregoing paragraph was written there 

 has been much use made of corn silage for breeding 

 ewes and fattening lambs. Prof. W. C. Coffey of 

 the Illinois Experiment Station has shown how 

 silage may cheapen the gains made by lambs, and 

 Profs. J. H. Skinner and W. W. Smith of the Pur- 

 due (Indiana) station have fed silage to pregnant 

 ewes, milking ewes and winter lambs. The con- 

 clusions in each instance are that silage may well be 

 made part of the winter ration. It seems to benefit 

 the digestion and cheapen gains. It saves both 

 grain and hay. Apparently it increases the weight 

 of wool in the Indiana experiment nearly 40/100 

 of a pound per head (say 10 cents worth). On many 

 farms silage is regularly fed to sheep, especially to 

 fattening lambs. On Woodland Farm it was fed for 

 a series of years with profit. Our practice was to 

 make the silage from well-matured corn which fa- 

 vors a sweet silage, to feed no more than 1% to 2 

 pounds per head per day, and to feed it in connec- 

 tion with good alfalfa hay and corn. One year, 

 however, nature took a hand in the game and sent 

 a frost that killed the corn before it was mature. 

 We filled the silos with this frosted corn, pretty 

 sappy in stalk, and the result was sour silage in 

 the bottom of the silo. When we had fed the lambs 

 nearly through the winter, with little loss and all 



