AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 69 



FEEDING EXPERIMENTS. 



miscellaneous. 



The Value op the Digestible Matter of Good Hay as 



Compared with the Digestible Matter of Corn 



Ensilage, for Milk Production. 



During the past year and a half an accurate record has been 

 kept of the yield and composition of milk from several cows 

 owned and fed by the station. Anv changes in the amount and 

 quality of the milk, due to changes in the food, it has been possi- 

 ble to detect, therefore. The food has also been carefully 

 weighed, and in some instances its composition and digestibility 

 have been determined. 



The direct object of this work has been a study of the products 

 of several breeds, but the data collected allow conclusions to be 

 drawn in regard to other matters of interest. The food of these 

 cows has for the most part consisted of hay and a mixture of cot- 

 ton-seed meal, bran and corn meal, but in the spring of 1888, for 

 about two months a portion of the hay was replaced by ensilage. 

 It was noticed that after the cows had been eating the ensilage for 

 a day or two, there was a sudden and unmistakable increase in the 

 yield of .milk, and as marked a decrease was observed when the 

 ensilage was taken from the ration. 



To what were these changes due? Did the hay alone contain 

 less digestible material than the hay and ensilage combined? It 

 was the intention to feed practically the same amount of digestible 

 matter after the ensilage was added to the ration, as was eaten 

 before. If this was done, then we must grant that in this case a 

 pound of digestible substance from corn ensilage was somewhat 

 superior to the same amount of digestible substance from good hay. 

 Let us study the evidence which the data furnish. 



The ensilage was fed from March 8th, 1888, to May 10th, 1888, 

 inclusive. From March 8th to April 8th, the ensilage fed was that 

 from the field corn, after which date the sweet corn ensilage was 

 eaten, excepting the last five days, when a change was made to 



2-B 



