SILAGE FOR BEEF CATTLE. 35 



One of the largest feeders of beef cattle in the East, 

 Hon. Humphrey Jones, scored a center shot for "silage- 

 for-beef" when he remarked: 



"We carry upon the same land more than fifty per 

 cent, more cattle than we did before we had the silos, and 

 whatever the correct theory of the matter may be, this 

 solid hard fact is sufficient to satisfy us that very much 

 more can be got out of the corn plant fed in the form of 

 silage than when fed dry in any manner which is practi- 

 cable with us." 



Mr Jones has large stock farms at Washington C. H., 

 Ohio. He is a heavy feeder of steers feeds from 500 to 

 1,000 annually and he makes ensilage a very large factor 

 in the ration. He speaks therefore from the standpoint 

 of practical experience, and being a thorough business 

 farmer, his statements can be relied upon as accurate. 

 On this subject Mr. Jones says: 



"We have found in the experience of feeding all kinds 

 of cattle, from calves to three-year-olds, that we can get 

 as good gains from feeding ensilage as in any other method 

 of feeding that we were ever familiar with. We add to 

 our silage, of course, clover hay or alfalfa. We grow large 

 quantities of these. During most of the time we have 

 added to our corn soy beans cut in with it, because they 

 are very rich in protein. In addition to that we have fed 

 cottonseed meal with the silage, and it is an ideal way 

 to feed it, because cottonseed meal is a thing by which 

 cattle may be injured if it is not properly fed. When 

 sprinkled over the ensilage it is mingled with all that 

 mass of roughage, and you can feed from three to five 

 pounds of cotton seed meal for six months to cattle with- 

 out any serious effects at all. We advise starting with 

 about two pounds of cottonseed meal, and increasing up 

 toward the end of the period to about five pounds; and 

 with that, without the addition of a grain of corn, we have 

 been able to make gains as rapidly and put the cattle in 

 better finish than we were ever able to do in any other 

 way. 



"Fifty bushels of corn to the acre will make about 

 ten tons of ensilage as it comes from the field, and about 

 eight tons as it conies out of the silo. There is a weight 

 of about 3,000 pounds of corn in that, which you see is 

 about 20 per cent, of the total weight as fed to the cattle; 



