of food may be digested in one ration as in another, yet the phys- 

 iological condition of the animal may be such that this digested 

 matter may in one case be utilized to far better advantage than 

 in another. The problem, then, is not one of efficiency of food 

 so much as of efficiency of the machine, /. e., the animal, and it is 

 this animal efficiency which succulent or watery foods increase. 

 The fact exists, that in every day practice two hundred and fifty 

 pounds of average ensilage will fully take the place of one hund- 

 dred pounds of hay, and in most cases the milk yield will increase 

 on this rate of substitution : 



The 250 lbs. of ensilage will contain 41 lbs. digestible mat- 

 ter, ^hile io« lbs. of hay will contain 51 lbs. digestible matter, 

 or, 100 lbs. of digestible matter in ensilage is fully equal to 125 

 lbs. in mixed hay, and as the proportion of albuminoids to non- 

 albuminoids is not essentially different, this gain must be due to 

 the condition of the two foods. 



4th. Convenience and cheapness of storing : A corn crop 

 having been produced, it must in some way be preserved for win- 

 ter feeding. " Topping the stalks," bindiog and stooking them, 

 leaving the ears and butt stalks to dry out, was at one time the 

 prevalent method, but it involved too much hand labor. Stook- 

 ing the entire crop as soon as the ears are well glazed, and al- 

 lowing them to dry for a month or more, husking the ears and 

 mowing away the stalks, reduces the labor, but still there is the 

 cost of husking, grinding the grain, etc., which, at the present 

 period of low prices for milk and dairy products, bears too heav- 

 ily on the raw material item in the problem. To " reduce the 

 cost of production " is the great problem in agricultural progress, 

 and it must be done by reducing the amount of human labor 

 which enters into farm products. A system of stooking corn in 

 large stooks and leaving them in the field until wanted for feed- 

 ing purposes has been, and is practiced, to some extent, it saves 

 labor, but wastes the crop, and is inconvenient in many ways. 

 Curing the crop and storing is practically impossible on a large 

 scale, since the amount or water to be dried out is very great, 

 and the weather frequently unfavorable ; in a small way it can 

 be practiced, but the disadvantages more than ofiset the advant- 

 ages. The silo, while not an ideal storage vault, does combine 

 more good points and less bad ones than any method yet devised 

 for preserving the corn crop, for the following reasons : 



4 



