THE SUNFLOWER AS A SILAGE CROP. • 17 



ing had to be discontinued and the silo reinforced with steel bands 

 in order to save it. Rommel found on inquiry that many farmers 

 in the Northwest who had filled their silos with sunflowers had 

 had similar experiences. 



One of the hoops on a wooden silo at Huntley, Mont., burst while 

 the silo was being filled with sunflowers, making it necessary to re- 

 inforce the silo with an iron band. Inquiries addressed to the Mon- 

 tana, Washington, and Oregon agricultural experiment stations, 

 however, elicited the information that no trouble of this Idnd had 

 been encountered at those stations, and none had been reported to 

 them by farmers. 



Nothing definite is yet known about the comparative pressure 

 exerted on the silo walls by corn and sunflower silage. No advice 

 can be given, therefore, as to the additional reinforcement necessary 

 for silos intended to hold sunflowers. Care should be used, how- 

 ever, in building such a silo, and the ordinary silo should be watched 

 closely while it is being filled with sunflowers and until the settling 

 process is completed. If it shows signs of cracking, serious trouble 

 can be averted by reinforcing it with iron bands. 



YIELDS OF SILAGE. 



The yields of sunflower silage have been consistently larger than 

 those of corn or other silage crops in the northern part of the 

 United States and the higher altitudes of the Rocky Mountain region, 

 where the temperatures are low during the summer season. The 

 results of the more important of these comparative tests are listed 

 in Table 1. 



Where the yields are recorded for different rates of seeding, as at 

 Huntley, Mont., that given in the table was obtained from drilled 

 rows 30 to 36 inches apart, because drilling in rows is the more com- 

 mon method of culture and the one which no doubt will be most 

 widely used by farmers. This method has not always given the 

 largest yield, as will be seen by reference to the paragraph on the 

 rate and method of seeding. The average yields of sunflowers, corn, 

 and sorgo are not given, because these three crops were not all grown 

 at a sufficient number of the stations to make the averages comparable. 

 In the first series of yields from Guelph, Ontario, the Mammoth Rus- 

 sian variety of sunflowers, which made the second highest yield 

 among the sunflower varieties tested, is compared with the second 

 highest yielding varieties of corn and sorgo. In the second series 

 the Black Giant variety of sunflower is compared with Wisconsin 

 No. 7 corn and Orange sorgo. These varieties made the highest 

 silage yields, respectively, of each of the crops under test. 



