THE SUNFLOWEE^ AS A SILAGE CROP. 25 



period. The sunflower silage, which was fed to the limit of the 

 cows' appetites, proved unpalatable. Considerable trouble was ex- 

 perienced in getting the cows to eat enough of it. In this test the 

 milk from the cows while fed sunflower silage averaged 4.75 per cent 

 of butter fat and while on corn silage only 4.39 per cent. In the 

 feeding test with the mixed corn and sunflower silage the cows 

 produced an average of 20.2 pounds of milk and 0.88 pound of butter 

 fat per cow daily, and 21.8 pounds of milk and 0.94 pound of butter 

 fat daily on the corn silage. Again there was a decrease, in this 

 case 14.5 per cent, in the milk produced when the cows were changed 

 from corn silage to the mixed silage containing sunflowers. The 

 corn silage used in the first test contained 30.6 per cent and the sun- 

 flower silage 26.6 per cent of air-dry matter. In the second test the 

 corn silage contained 32.9 per cent and the mixed silage 25.8 per cent 

 of air-dry matter. 



Prof. Bechdel states his conclusions as follows : " From a study 

 of the complete data of these experiments it is concluded that the 

 use of sunflowers as a silage crop is not advisable on Pennsylvania 

 farms except in a very few localities where corn is not always a sure 

 crop. A mixture of sunflowers and corn, the crops being grown 

 either alone or together, affords no advantage when the poorer quality 

 of silage and the added difficulty of harvesting are taken into con- 

 sideration." 



The Michigan Agricultural College {11) reported that the milk 

 production fell off 11.65 per cent when cows were changed from corn 

 silage to sunflower silage. When the coavs were taken from a sun- 

 flower-silage ration and fed both corn and sunflower silages in equal 

 portions there was an increase of 7.06 per cent in the milk produced. 

 When the change was made from this mixture of silages to pure corn 

 silage there was again a decrease of 5,58 per cent in the milk pro- 

 duced. The results in Michigan seem to indicate that sunflower 

 silage is less efficient than corn silage as a milk-producing feed, but 

 that a combination of the two silages is preferable to either. 



Holden (5, p. 27) in his report of the work at the Scottsbluff 

 (Nebr.) Experiment Farm for 1918 and 1919 makes the following 

 comment on the value of the different silage crops under test at that 

 station : " From the data available at this experiment farm it is be- 

 lieved that the extra tonnage from silage corn over that from field 

 corn will more than make up for the better quality of the field corn. 

 It is further believed that the ensilage from silage corn is sufficiently 

 higher in quality to offset the greater yield of sunflowers." 



Sunflower silage was compared with sweet-sorghum silage as a 

 feed for dairy cows at the New Mexico station {16) in the winter 



