WHEAT, RYE AND OATS. 157 



alent to corn silage, pound for pound, for dairy cows. The use of 

 beet tops for silage is discussed on page 166 of this book. 



Wheat, rye and oats have been siloed for summer feeding with 

 some success. They should be cut in ^4 inch lengths and well 

 tramped around the edges. A recent correspondent in Hoard's 

 Dairyman tells of sowing some 23 acres of rye and 9 acres of wheat 

 in the fall and filling one silo with the rye the following May and 

 the other with wheat early in June, just when they were headed 

 out but before the grain was actually formed. Several acres of 

 oats and peas were put into a third silo the first week in July. 

 In cutting the rye and wheat it was necessary to take the precau- 

 tion of cutting into short lengths and of carefully treading and 

 packing it in the silo, in order to insure its keeping qualities. "It 

 has kept very well until entirely consumed by the cattle, and we 

 have no reason to suppose that it would not have kept if we had 

 not used it up when we did. But our experience has been that 

 neither the rye nor the wheat is equal to corn silage for feed. 

 In fact the cows did not eat the rye as clean as they should have 

 done and fell off somewhat in milk. When we began on the wheat, 

 however, they did better, and we believe the wheat to be better 

 material for silage than rye." 



Oats and peas may be put into the silo and they make a very 

 satisfactory silage. As a rule, those plants which have a hollow 

 stem, like oats, do not keep well in the silo unless great care is 

 taken to have them very well tramped, as the hollow stems carry 

 too much air. If the late summer and fall are not too dry it will 

 be possible to produce a crop of cow peas for ensilage, planted 

 after oats harvest. 



Oats have been put in the silo to kill mustard seed before the 

 latter plants were matured, but after maturity the seeds are so 

 well protected that it is doubtful if the heating and fermentation 

 would destroy them. 



When legumes such as alfalfa, clover, vetch and peaa are put 

 into the silo, they should be ensiled with some such crop as corn, 

 rye or oats. The legumes alone do not contain enough sugar to 

 afford the production of sufficierit acid to prevent the high protein 

 content of the legume from decaying. The corn, rye or oats, mixed 

 with the legumes, would provide sugar for the production of suf- 

 ficient acid to preserve both plants. The rye should be mixed 



