ENSILAGE AS A COMPLETE RATION. 225 



pound fat. This is a large excess of fat, which will more 

 than make up the deficiency of carbo-hydrates. We know 

 from experiment that this ration will produce a large flow 

 of milk, having fed it in just this proportion early in Sep- 

 tember, from green corn and second-crop clover, both in 

 excellent condition ; but being fed fresh, it contained more 

 water than that given in the table, as that had lost water 

 in the silo. Yet it contained liberal nourishment to pro- 

 duce a full flow of milk. We have fed this combination 

 in several different years, and always with complete satis- 

 faction. 



Let us examine red clover as an ensilage crop. As will 

 be seen by the table, red clover is the most nitrogenous of 

 the leguminous grasses there given, except lucerne or alfalfa, 

 and this latter has not been cultivated to any consider- 

 able extent except in California. A full crop of green 

 clover weighs more than most farmers suppose. The author 

 has fed many acres of red clover for soiling, and carefully 

 weighed the product of an acre in different seasons. Ten 

 tons have been found only a good crop in a favorable 

 season, and sometimes 12 tons have been weighed from an 

 acre at the first cutting. Twenty tons may be taken from 

 an acre at three cuttings in the most favorable seasons. 

 Lawes' and Gilbert's experiments with different fertilizers 

 for clover, produced from fourteen to eighteen gross tons 

 of green clover upon an acre at one cutting, the latter yield 

 being equal to a little over 20 American tons. And as a ton 

 of clover is worth about two tons of fodder-corn, it will be 

 seen that the clover crop may be quite as profitable for 

 ensilage as corn. It can be out and ensilaged at a less price 

 per ton than corn can be grown and ensilaged. If, then, 

 we estimate the specially raised clover crop, in two cuttings, 

 to produce 15 tons per acre, this would give a ration of 65 

 pounds per day for 461 days, and it would take half an acre 

 of good corn to produce the 62 pounds of corn per day 



