222 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



one acre of corn as upon four to six acres in meadow ; yet 

 the drawback to this view is, that the meadow produces a 

 complete cattle food, whilst corn is not a complete food, 

 but must be fed with other nitrogenous food to obtain its 

 full value. 



The conclusion, then, must be that all the grasses, in- 

 cluding corn, supplemented by the clovers and other legu- 

 minous plants, must go into the silo together, and these 

 furnish complete rations for the production of meat, milk 

 and wool. The labor bestowed per ton in ensilaging the 

 grasses and grains, in the more succulent state, will be 

 even less than for corn, because the former can be more 

 easily cut by the mowing-machine and handled by the 

 horse-rake and hay-loader, or even with the fork. 



It is also quite probable that the grasses, in the fit con- 

 dition for ensilaging, may be put in the silo with less labor 

 than they can be cured and put in the barn. 



The larger digestibility of succulent grass over that of 

 cured hay will certainly be an ample remuneration for this 

 new method of preserving it. It is quite true, however, 

 that by some small German experiments it appears that 

 grass, after carefully drying, is as digestible as in the succu- 

 lent condition ; but when these experimenters seek to gen- 

 eralize from these few and exceptional cases, founding upon 

 them a general axiom that green food loses none of its 

 digestibility by drying, let us oppose to this the great gen- 

 eral fact that cattle grow and fatten rapidly and profitably 

 upon the succulent grasses, but cannot be profitably fat- 

 tened upon the dried grasses or hay. Our meadows are 

 usually stocked with nearly the same combination of 

 grasses as our pastures, but who would assert that a full 

 ration of the best hay would produce as much milk or lay 

 on as much flesh as the best pasture ? Such facts, open to 

 the general observation of all intelligent feeders, are not to 

 be upset by a German experiment upon two sheep ! 



