THE SILOING PROCESS. 17 



tice. On the other hand, we conclude that this method 

 of preserving the clover crop is highly valuable, and, in 

 most cases, to be preferred to making hay of the crop. 



No extended investigation has been made as to the 

 losses sustained in the siloing of alfalfa, but there can be 

 little doubt but that they are considerably smaller than 

 In making alfalfa hay, if proper precautions guarding 

 against unnecessary losses in the silo are taken. Accord- 

 ing to the testimony of Professor Headden of the Colo- 

 rado Experiment Station, the minimum loss from the fall- 

 ing off of leaves and stems in successful alfalfa hay mak- 

 ing amounts to from 15 to 20 per cent., and in cases 

 where the conditions have been unfavorable, to as much 

 as 60 and even 66 per cent, of the hay crop. Aside from 

 the losses sustained through abrasion, rain storms, when 

 these occur, may reduce the value of the hay one-half. 

 The losses from either of these sources are avoided in 

 preserving the crop in the silo, and in their place a small 

 loss through fermentation occurs, under ordinary favor- 

 able conditions, amounting to about 10 per cent, or less. 



There is this further advantage to be considered 

 when the question of relative losses in the silo and in 

 hay-making or field-curing green forage, that hay or corn 

 fodder, whether in shocks or in the field or stored under 

 shelter, gets poorer and poorer the longer it is kept, as 

 the processes of decomposition are going on all the 

 time; in the silo, on the other hand, the loss in food sub- 

 stances is not appreciably larger six months after the silo 

 was filled than it is one month after, because the air 

 Is shut out, so that the farmer who puts up a lot of fodder 

 corn for silage in the fall can have as much and as val- 

 uable feed for his stock in the spring, or in fact, the fol- 

 lowing summer or fall, as he would have if he proceeded 

 to feed out all the silage at once. 



"Generally speaking, 3 tons of silage are equal In 



feeding value to one ton of hay. On this basis a much 



larger amount of digestible food can be secured from an 



acre of silage corn than from an acre of hay. The food 



2 



