112 SUMMER SILO. 



that, while a cow is taking one bite of grass, she is perhaps soiling 

 or trampling the life out of four others. If sufficient silage is put 

 up each year part can well be used for summer feeding, which 

 will be found less laborious than the daily hauling of green crops 

 for the herd. The herd must not be allowed to shrink in flow 

 unduly, as it is practically impossible to bring them back during 

 the same lactation. The young stock, destined for future pro- 

 ducers, must not be neglected on short pasture, for the labor and 

 expense of supplying their needs as above indicated for the herd, 

 is insignificant compared with the importance of their unimpaired 

 growth." 



The Indiana Station states that "The most rapid and most econ- 

 omical gains ever made by two-year-old cattle fed experimentally 

 at this station were made by a load of 800-pound cattle fed from 

 March 17 to July 15, 1910, on a ration of shelled corn, cottonseed 

 meal, corn silage and clover hay. During this period the cattle 

 ate an average daily feed of 14.61 pounds of corn, 2.24 pounds of 

 cottonseed meal, 33.81 pounds of silage and 2.38 pounds of clover 

 hay. They relished the silage as well in summer as in winter." 



There are many intelligent farmers who are providing a suc- 

 cession of fresh soiling crops and using them to great advantage 

 in helping out short pastures. "But," says Professor Frazer of the 

 Illinois Station, "there is necessarily much labor attached to pre- 

 pairing the ground, planting, raising, and harvesting the common 

 crops used for this purpose. There is usually much loss in being 

 obliged to feed these crops before they are mature and after they 

 are overripe. And for the farmer who can make the larger in- 

 vestment, the most practical way of all to provide green feed for 

 summer drouth is to fill a small silo with corn silage. It not only 

 saves the labor and inconvenience in the putting in and cultivation 

 of small patches of different kinds of crops, but also in harvesting 

 from day to day in a*busy season of the year. 



"These soiling crops can be dispensed with and all the feed 

 raised from one planting in one field in the shape of corn. The 

 whole field of corn for the silo may be cut at just the right stage 

 of maturity when the most nutriment can be secured in the best 

 possible condition of feeding. It also avoids the possibility of the 

 soiling crops failing to ripen at the exact period when the drouth 

 happens to strike the pasture. For the silo may be opened when- 

 ever the pasture fails, regardless of the date, and the silage will 

 remain in the best condition as long as needed. When the pasture 

 supplies enough feed again, what is left in the silo may be covered 



