166 HOW TO MAKE SILAGE. 



The difficulty of the freezing of the silage may be 

 avoided by checking the ventilation in the silo and by 

 leaving the door to the silo carefully closed in severe 

 weather. If the top layer of silage freezes some of the 

 warm silage may be mixed with the frozen silage an 

 hour or two before feeding time, and all the silage will 

 then be found in good condition when fed out. A layer 

 of straw may be kept as a cover over the silage; this 

 will prevent it from freezing, and is easily cleared off 

 when silage is to be taken out. 



Silage From Frosted Corn. 



Experiments were conducted at the Vermont Station 

 in October, 1906, with immature corn, mature corn not 

 frosted, and mature corn frosted hard or frozen and the 

 leaves whitened. No ill results were noticeable in the 

 butter product. It was found that "the effect of frosting 

 corn, and still more of freezing it, appears very slightly 

 to have been to depress its feeding value when made into 

 silage. " The testimony seemed in favor of running frost 

 risks in order to gain a greater maturity, rather than to 

 silo the immature product. 



Steamed Silage. 



While fermentation in silage causes a small unavoid- 

 able loss, it develops flavors and softens the plant tissue. 

 Excessive fermentation causes high acid. Steam has been 

 used with much success to check it in such cases, says 

 Farmer's Bulletin No. 316. It is piped at the bottom and 

 middle of the silo until the whole mass is hot. 



Steaming seems beneficial and silage so treated is con- 

 sidered much better than that which is not steamed. Stall 

 fed animals have eaten from 50 to 75 Ibs. of silage per day. 



