CORN SILAGE AND ROOTS. 81 



three periods of twelve days, one hundred pounds of digestible 

 matter of the silage ration produced 131.92 Ibs. of milk and 

 7.21 Ibs. of butter; and with the root ration 137.30 Ibs. of milk 

 and 6.53 Ibs. of butter. When the two lots of cows were fed 

 alike, and on a combined ration of roots and silage, the silage 

 lot produced per 100 Ibs. of digestible matter consumed 139 Ibs. 

 milk and 6.79 Ibs. of butter; the root lot 150 Ibs. milk and 

 6. 46 Ibs. butter." 



At the Pennsylvania State College * the supply of roots was Comparison of 

 very small and the period during which they were fed was corn Sllafle 

 short. Every farmer is aware, from a practical standpoint, of 

 the increased yield of richer milk when feeding roots in connec- covvs 

 tion with, or in place of, corn stored during the winter. 



Feeding with roots (beets, mangel -wurzels and rutabagas) 

 did not take the place of silage until the third week of the ex- 

 periment. During one week only 31 Ibs. sugar-beets were fed; 

 the week that followed 52 Ibs. mangel-wurzels were used, and 

 these were followed by 63J Ibs. rutabagas in place of 40 Ibs. 

 silage. During the entire experiment hay was fed. The trials 

 are to be repeated on a future occasion. It was concluded that 

 more and richer milk was obtained while roots were used. 



An interesting fact is, that while silage, etc., were constantly 

 refused by the cows, they ate with avidity the entire quantity 

 of roots offered. While with silage ration the average milk ob- 

 tained was 14.29 Ibs. per diem, the average was 18.01 Ibs. with 

 roots. The fatty matter in the milk in the first case was 0.72 

 Ib. , in the other, 0. 81 Ib. The water drunk with a silage ration 

 was 36 Ibs., but with root ration it was only 28 Ibs. The 

 quantity of water used continued to decrease w^hen silage was 

 substituted for roots. 



The two cows used in Dr. Goessmann's experiments f were 

 crosses of native stock and Ayrshires; they were at same milk- 

 ing periods, four weeks after calving. The daily diet of both 

 cows consisted, at the beginning of the experiment, of 3J Ibs. of 



* Report of 1890. 



t Bulletin No. 22, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, October, 



1836. 



