CATTLE. 345 



pursuing the old line of feeding must have about two acres pasture, from 

 two to three acres to raise fodder enough to put a cow through the win- 

 ter, besides the grain she must have, while with corn, one-half acre will 

 supply all she will eat during the six winter months, and then, too, there 

 is no better way to utilize a corn crop thin to put it into the silo, for there 

 it is in its most perfect condition for food. There is not only the succu- 

 lence, but the development of the woody fiber in the stalk is stopped at 

 just the stage of growth when it is most valuable in milk produc- 

 tion. 



Another feature of this question is that the chemical action that takes 

 place in the silo is an aid to digestion, enabling the animal to eat more 

 than she otherwise could digest and assimilate, thus making more milk 

 from a given amount of food than can be made from any other product 

 fed. Ensilage is the only food that will enable a dairy to produce milk 

 as cheap during the six winter months as during the six summer 

 months. The dairyman in the future will be compelled to adopt ensil- 

 age, and the man who has his cows drop their calves in March and April 

 and dries them all in November will be a back number. There is posi- 

 tively no excuse for such practice, allowing the cows to do business only 

 during the summer, and then tending a lot of dirty, lazj^ cows all winter 

 with no income from them. If merchants should shut up their stores 

 and go out of business for five months in the year, and just keep the 

 Store warm and swept out, but not sell anything until spring comes, we 

 would call them fools, but that is just what a great many dairymen are 

 doing, and then wondering why their profits are not larger. 



IvOok at this ensilage question in any way, one is forced to accept it 

 as the cheapest food known for stock. The silo system has passed its 

 experimental stage, and in these days no man needs to put up a silo 

 excepting he is to solve the problem whether or not it is cheap food; 

 whether or not it is a wholesome food; whether or not it will pay a 

 farmer, whose bank account is limited, to put one up. All of these 

 points have been decided many times over by dairymen in every dairy 

 State in the Union. This ensilage question is not a craze or a fad. It 

 is an accepted practice that has come to stay. The idea is not new. 

 Silos were constructed in Egypt over twenty centuries ago, and the prac- 

 tice has come down to us with many improvements, until to-day we are 

 forced to accept its utility and its advantages. 



The dairy cow on the June pasture is at her best, and to keep her at 

 her best these June conditions, both as to food and climate, must be ap- 



