258 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



Silage has been fed to breeding ewes with 

 excellent results when it was of good quality 

 and fed judiciously. When it has been acid, or 

 when fed in immoderate amounts, disaster has 

 followed its use. 



In some instances that have come under the 

 writer's observation great losses have come 

 from attempting to feed silage exclusively to 

 breeding ewes. They throve for a time, then 

 went swiftly to ruin, much of it irretrievable. 

 Loss has also come from feeding acid silage. 



Silos should not be built with cemented, 

 water-tight floor. On such a floor the silage 

 becomes very acid and trouble follows when it 

 is fed to sheep. The natural earth makes the 

 best floor of a silo. 



Never with sheep should silage form more 

 than half the ration. If this rule is observed 

 and the silage is made from well matured com, 

 planted no thicker than for the regular crop, it 

 is believed that none but good results will ever 

 follow its use. • 



Lambs will not consume quite all the coarser 

 parts of the silage. These must be thrown 

 under foot or cleaned out and fed to cows. The 

 writer has seen great loss from feeding the 

 refused portions of silage fed to horses. In one 

 instance where quite a heap of it had accumu- 

 lated in the barnyard eleven horses and mules 

 ate of it. Eleven of them died. There is evi- 

 dently some principle developed in silage after 

 it has been exposed to the air, perhaps, that is 

 most unfavorable to horses. They die with 

 symptoms resembling spinal meningitis. There 



