SUMMER FEEDING. 113 



over and thus preserved without waste, and added to when refilling 

 the silo for winter use." 



Oregon Bulletin No. 136 says that "the summer silo is growing 

 in favor, and in many ways has advantages over the soiling sys- 

 tem. As soiling is now practiced, a carefully planned rotation is 

 necessary in order to have green feed always on hand. The acre- 

 age of each crop must necessarily be small, and frequent planting 

 at intervals of from ten days to two weeks must be made. If a 

 large field were planted and soiling started at the proper time to 

 get the maximum yield of food constituents and the greatest palat- 

 ability, the greater part of the crop would soon be beyond this 

 stage, as only a small part would be cut each day. By putting the 

 crop into the silo all could be cut at the proper stage of maturity, 

 and all at the same time. This would do away with the daily 

 chore of cutting small amounts." 



The dry pastures and burned-up hillsides following the drouth 

 of 1910 made a very strong impression as to the importance of 

 having good summer feeding. It was an eloquent though severe 

 plea for the summer silo and led to some splendid testimony in its 

 favor. The drouth "cut down the milk flow in most of the herds 

 nearly 50 per cent. Not one farmer in a hundred had provided 

 for this emergency by a good supply of succulent food that would 

 make milk. It is the same old story over again. It seems to take 

 a tremendous lot of pounding on the part of Providence, to get it 

 into farmers' heads that a summer silo is a grand thing," says 

 Hoard's Dairyman. "Our herd of cows had 50 tons or more of 

 nice corn silage to turn to when feed grew short and they have 

 rolled out the milk nicely right along. Besides, they will keep at 

 it. There is nothing like a supply of silage for summer use. It is 

 close by and handy to the stable for use when you want it. And 

 furthermore it will produce more milk than any other kind of soil- 

 ing feed." 



This is the experience of Wisconsin investigators, who find 

 that silage holds milk-flow during drouth even better than soiling. 

 It is rational that it should. 



During the summers of 1910, 1911 and 1912 the comparative 

 value of soiling crops and silage were thoroughly tested out at the 

 Wisconsin Experiment Station. In these tests corn silage com- 

 peted with such soiling crops as green corn, pea.s, oats and red 



