SOJA BEANS AND SORGHUM. 145 



given very satisfactory results, and have shown that this 

 silage mixture can be partly substituted for the grain 

 ration of milch cows without causing loss of flesh or 

 lessening the production of milk or fat. Fifteen pounds 

 of this silage may be considered equivalent to three or 

 four pounds of grain feeds. The practice has not, how- 

 ever, been adopted to any great extent, so far as is known, 

 owing to the difficulty of securing a good quality of silage 

 from the mixture and of growing the horse beans success- 

 fully. 



Soja beans (soy beans) are another valuable silage 

 crop. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 the soy bean is highly nutritive, gives a heavy yield, and 

 is easily cultivated. The vigorous late varieties are well 

 adapted for silage. The crop is frequently siloed with 

 corn (2 parts of the latter to 1 of the former), and like 

 other legumes it improves the silage by tending to counter- 

 act the acid reaction of corn silage. Of other Southern 

 crops that are used for silage crops may be mentioned 

 Kaffir corn, chicken corn and teosinte. 



Sorghum is sometimes siloed in the Western and Mid- 

 dle States, and in the South. It is sown in drills, 3* inches 

 apart, with a stalk every six to ten inches in the row, and 

 is cut when the kernels are in the dough stage, or before. 

 According to Shelton, the medium-growing saccharine and 

 non-saccharine sorghum are excellent for silage. The 

 sorghums are less liable to be damaged by insects than 

 corn, and they remain green far into the fall, so that the 

 work of filling the silo may be carried on long after the 

 corn is ripe and the stalks all dried up. The yield per acre 

 of green sorghum will often reach 20 tons, or one-half as 

 much again as a good crop of corn. These considera- 

 tions lead Professor Shelton to pronounce sorghum greatly 

 superior to corn as silage materials, in Kansas, and gen- 

 erally throughout the Central Western States. The Ottawa 

 (Can.) Station states that sorghum, where it can be grown 

 makes an excellent crop for silage. It needs to be cut, 

 the best length, as in the case of corn being three-quarters 

 of an inch long, or less. 

 10 



