146 SILAGE CROPS. 



Other Silage Crops. 



Clover. We are but beginning to appreciate the value of clover 

 in modern agriculture. It has been shown that the legumes, the 

 family to which clover belongs, are the only common forage plants 

 able to convert the free nitrogen of the air into compounds that 

 may be utilized for the nutrition of animals. Clover and other 

 legumes, therefore, draw largely on the air for the most expensive 

 and valuable fertilizing ingredient, nitrogen, and for this reason, as 

 well as on account of their deep roots, which bring fertilizing ele- 

 ments up near the surface, they enrich the land upon which they 

 grow. Being a more nitrogenous food than corn or the grasses, 

 clover supplies a good deal of the protein compounds required by 

 farm animals for the maintenance of their bodies and for the pro- 

 duction of milk, wool or meat. By feeding clover, a smaller pur- 

 chase of high-priced concentrated feed stuffs, like flour-mill or oil- 

 mill refuse products, is therefore rendered necessary than when 

 corn is fed; on account of its high fertilizing value it furthermore 

 enables the farmer feeding it to maintain the fertility of his land. 



When properly made, clover silage is an ideal feed for nearly 

 all kinds of stock. Aside from its higher protein contents it has 

 an advantage over corn silage in point of lower cost of production. 

 A Wisconsin dairy farmer who has siloed large quantities of clover 

 estimates the cost of one ton of clover silage at 70 cents to $1, 

 against $1 to $1.25 per ton of corn silage. His average yield per 

 acre of green clover is about twelve tons. 



Clover silage is superior to clover hay on account of its succu- 

 lence and greater palatability, as well as its higher feeding value. 

 The last- mentioned point is mainly due to the fact that all the 

 parts of the clover plant are preserved in the silo, with a small 

 unavoidable loss in fermentation, while in hay-making, leaves and 

 tender parts, which contain about two-thirds of the protein com- 

 pounds, are often largely lost by abrasion. 



Contrasting results in the use of clover for silage seem to in- 

 dicate that it keeps better in a cool climate than under warm or 

 temperate conditions. At the Agassiz Experiment Station in Brit- 

 ish Columbia three cuttings of red clover yielded 32 tons of green 

 forage to the acre and made cheaper silage than the corn plant. 

 In practically every instance in this region where clover has been 

 used in the silo the results have been satisfactory. Prof. Harry 



