SILAGE AS A STOCK FOOD. 187 



lot corn silage with shelled corn. The former lot gained 

 222 pounds in thirty-six days, and the latter lot 535 

 pounds, or a gain of 1.5 pounds per day per head for the 

 silage-fed steers, and 3.7 pounds per day for the silage 

 and shelled-corn-fed steers. Prof. Emery fed corn silage 

 and cotton-seed meal, in the proportion of eight to one, 

 to two three-year-old steers, at the North Carolina Ex- 

 periment Station. The gain made during thirty-two days 

 was, for one steer, 78 pounds, and for the other, 85.5 

 pounds, or 2.56 pounds per head per day. 



The late well-known Wisconsin dairyman, Hon. Hiram 

 Smith, in 1888 gave the following testimony concerning 

 the value of silage for milch cows: "My silo was opened 

 December 1st, and thirty pounds of ensilage was fed to 

 each of the ninety cows for the night's feed, or 2,700 

 pounds per day, until March 10, one hundred days, or a 

 total of 135 tons, leaving sufficient ensilage to last until 

 May 10th. The thirty pounds took and well filled the 

 place of ten pounds of good hay. Had hay been fed for 

 the night's feed in place of the ensilage, it would have 

 required 900 pounds per day for the ninety cows, or a 

 total for the one hundred days of forty-five tons. 



"It would have required, in the year 1887, forty-five 

 acres of meadow to have produced the hay, which, if 

 bought or sold, would have amounted to $14.00 per acre. 

 The 135 tons of ensilage were produced on 8Y 2 acres of 

 land, and had a feeding value, as compared with hay, 

 of $74.11 per acre." As the conclusion of the whole mat- 

 ter, Mr. Smith stated that "three cows can be wintered 

 seven months on one acre producing 16* tons of ensilage, 

 while it required two acres of meadow in the same year 

 of 1887 to winter one cow, with the same amount of ground 

 feed in both cases." 



Professor Shelton, formerly of Kansas Agricultural 

 College, gives a powerful plea for silage in the following 

 simple statement: "The .single fact that the product of 

 about two acres of ground kept our herd of fifty cattle 



