292 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



lent results when it was of good quality and fed 

 judiciously. When it has been acid, or when in 

 immoderate amounts, disaster has followed its use. 



In some instances that have come under the writ- 

 er's observation great losses have come from at- 

 tempting to feed silage exclusively to breeding ewes. 

 They did well for a time, then went swiftly to ruin, 

 much of it irretrievable. Loss has also come from 

 feeding acid silage. 



A silo should not be built with cemented water- 

 tight floor. On such a floor the silage becomes very 

 acid, and when it is fed to sheep trouble follows. 

 The natural earth makes the best floor for a silo. 



Never with sheep should silage form more than 

 half the ration. If this rule is observed and the si- 

 lage is made from well matured corn, planted no 

 thicker than for the regular crop, it is believed that 

 none but good results will ever follow its use. 



Lambs will not consume quite all the coarser 

 parts of the silage. These must be thrown under 

 foot or cleaned out and fed to cows. The writer has 

 seen great loss from feeding the refused portions of 

 silage to horses. In one instance where quite a heap 

 of it had accumulated in the barnyard eleven horses 

 and mules ate of it. All of them died. There is 

 evidently some principle developed in silage after 

 it has been exposed to the air, perhaps, that is most 

 unfavorable to horses. They died with symptoms 

 resembling spinal meningitis. There will be death 

 loss among feeding lambs no matter how carefully 

 they are fed. Care will greatly reduce this loss, 



