CORN SILAGE COMPARED TO HAY. 185 



in the silo, and another part is secured in the stack 

 without rain, one might prove as good food as the other. 

 But it must be borne in mind that while the produc- 

 tion of good hay is a matter of uncertainty from the 

 elements of success being beyond the control of the 

 farmer good silage, by taking proper precautions, can 

 be made with certainty." 



A few feeding experiments with corn silage vs. hay 

 will be mentioned in the following: 



In an experiment with milch cows conducted at the 

 New Hampshire Station, the silage ration, containing 

 16.45 pounds of digestible matter, produced 21.0 pounds of 

 milk, and the hay ration, containing 16.83 pounds digest- 

 ible matter, produced 18.4 pounds milk; calculating the 

 quantities of milk produced by 100 pounds of digestible 

 matter in either case, we find on the silage ration, 127.7 

 pounds of milk, on the hay ration, 109.3 pounds, or 17 

 per cent, in favor of the silage ration. 



In a feeding experiment with milch cows at the 

 Maine Station, in which silage likewise was compared 

 with hay, the addition of silage to the ration resulted 

 in a somewhat increased production of milk solids, which 

 was not caused by an increase in the digestible food 

 materials eaten, but which must have been due either to 

 the superior value of the nutriments of the silage over 

 those of the hay or to the general psychological effect of 

 feeding a great variety of foods. 8.8 pounds of silage 

 proved to be somewhat superior to 1.98 pounds of hay 

 (mostly timothy), the quantity of digestible material be- 

 ing the same in the two cases. 



In another experiment, conducted at the same station, 

 where silage was compared with hay for steers, a pound 

 of digestible matter from the corn silage produced some- 

 what more growth than a pound of digestible matter from 

 timothy hay. The difference was small, however, amount- 

 ing in the case of the last two periods, where the more 



