FORAGE CROPS 



Almost any juicy green crop may be turned into silage. 

 Clover, cow peas, vetch, and even clean beet tops, are often 

 used. The best silage, however, is made from corn. Only 

 a few years ago corn silage was usually made from imma- 

 ture " fodder " corn, grown thickly in the drills, with only 

 nubbins for ears. But experiments have proved that a 

 large part of the food value is lost if the corn is cut much 

 before it is ripe. The approved practice now is to sow in 



such a way as to develop 

 a fair proportion of ears, 

 and to cut the crop only 

 a week or so, at most, 

 sooner than if it were 

 being cut for grain. 

 Corn silage made in this 

 way is not only much 

 higher in food value 

 than the older sort, but 

 it is also less likely to 

 spoil, and it is almost 

 wholly free from the 

 odor that has in the past 



A CEMENT SILO. beeU associated with 



silage feeding. This is 



because the sugar of the sap has had time to turn into 

 starch. In less mature corn the sugar ferments the silage. 



A silo " cutter," driven by an engine, receives the corn 

 bundles from the field, cuts stalks and ears rapidly into 

 half-inch or quarter-inch pieces, and elevates these shreds, 

 by a carrier or a " blower," ten, twenty, thirty, or even 

 sixty feet, to the top of the silo. As the corn falls within 

 the silo it is trodden down or in some other way packed 

 thoroughly by two or more men. 



The total cost of a ton of corn silage (including all fac- 



