SILAGE FOR SWINE. 203 



American authority on the swine industry, states that silage is 

 valuable to add to the winter rations of our swine. Mr. J. W. 

 Pierce of Indiana writes in regard to silage for hogs: ".We have 

 fed our sows, about twenty-five in number, for four winters, equal 

 parts of ensilage and corn meal put into a cooker, and brought up 

 to a steaming state. It has proved to be very beneficial to them. 

 It keeps up the flow of milk of the sows that are nursing the 

 young, equal to when they are running on clover. We find, too, 

 when the pigs are farrowed, they become more robust, and take 

 to nursing much sooner and better than they did in winters when 

 fed on an exclusively dry diet. We also feed it to our sheep. To 

 sixty head we put out about six bushels of ensilage." Young pigs 

 are exceedingly fond of silage. Feeding experiments conducted at 

 Virginia Experiment Station show that silage is an economical 

 maintenance feed for hogs, when fed in connection with a little 

 corn, but not when fed alone. 



In feeding silage to hogs, care should be taken to feed only 

 very little, a pound or so, at the start, mixing it with corn meal, 

 shorts, or other concentrated feeds. The diet of the hog should be 

 largely made up of easily digested grain food; bulky, coarse feeds 

 like silage can only be fed to advantage in small quantities, not to 

 exceed three or four pounds per head per day. As in case of breed- 

 ing ewes, silage will give good results when fed with care to 

 brood sows, keeping the system in order, and producing a good 

 flow of milk. 



Silage for Poultry- 



But little experience is at hand as to the use of silage as a poul- 

 try food; some farmers, however, are feeding a little silage to their 

 poultry with good success. Only small quantities should, of course, 

 be fed, and it is beneficial as a stimulant and a regulator, as much 

 as food. A poultry raiser writes as follows in Orange Judd Farmer, 

 concerning his experience in making and feeding silage to fowls. 

 Devices similar to that here described have repeatedly been ex- 

 plained in the agricultural press: "Clover and corn silage is one 

 of the best winter foods for poultry raisers. Let me tell you how 

 to build four silos for $1. Buy four coal-oil barrels at the drug 

 store, burn them out on the inside, and take the heads out. Go to 

 the clover field when the second crop of the small June clover is 



