SILAGE FOR "CERTIFIED MILK." 193 



one hundred farmers furnishing the feed rations fed to their 

 dairy cows, in an investigation of this subject conducted by Prof. 

 Woll in 1894, sixty-four were feeding silage to their stock, this 

 feed being used a larger number of times than any other single 

 cattle food, wheat bran only excepted. 



An interesting experiment 'as to the effect of silage on milk 

 was conducted by the Illinois Station, where a herd of 40 cows 

 was divided, one lot being fed 40 Ibs. of silage a day, the other 

 clover hay and grain. Samples of milk were submitted to 372 

 persons for an opinion. Sixty per cent preferred the silage-fed 

 milk, 29 per cent non-silage-fed milk, while 11 per cent had no 

 choice. They were able to distinguish between the two kinds, 

 but found nothing objectionable about either. The summary of 

 the test was that when silage imparts a bad or disagreeable 

 flavor to milk produced from it, almost invariably the cause is 

 that the silage has not been fed properly, or that spoiled silage 

 has been used. 



It has been contended that the acetic acid in silage has a 

 tendency to make milk sour more quickly. A user of silage 

 for 14 years took a gallon of milk from a cow fed silage for 42 

 days and a gallon from another that had received no silage and 

 set them side by side in a room having a temperature of 40 

 degrees. Both gallons of milk began to sour at the same time. 



The combination in which corn silage will be used in feeding 

 milch cows will depend a good deal on local conditions; it may be 

 said in general that it should be supplemented by a fair pro- 

 portion of nitrogenous feeds like clover hay, wheat bran, ground 

 oats, linseed meal, gluten feed, cotton-seed meal, etc. As it may 

 be of some help to our readers a number of balanced rations or 

 such as are near enough balanced to produce good results at 

 the pail, are presented below. 



Silage Rations for Milch Cows. 



No. 1. Corn silage, 35 Ibs.; hay, 8 Ibs.; wheat bran, 4 Ibs.; 

 ground oats, 3 Ibs.; oil meal, 2 Ibs. 



No. 2. Corn silage, 50 Ibs.; corn stalks, 10 Ibs.; corn meal, 2 

 Ibs.; wheat bran, 4 Ibs.; malt sprouts, 3 Ibs.; oil meal, 1 Ib. 



