250 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



and it may be cheaply provided. It may be conveniently 

 fed and the supply may be assured, as the crop is grown 

 the previous year. In order to feed it to the best ad- 

 vantage a summer silo should usually be constructed, 

 adapted to such feeding as described below. 



The suitability of ensilage for providing soiling 

 food consists in its containing essentially the same 

 nutrients and the same properties as green corn fed 

 from the growing crop. In one respect, it is usually 

 superior to the latter, being richer in nutrients, as it is 

 usually cut at a more advanced stage of growth. It also 

 consists in its palatability when it is well preserved. It 

 has been noticed that cows while grazing on the best 

 of pastures will, at the same time, consume a consider- 

 able quantity of ensilage with a relish, if given access 

 to it. There is something about well-preserved ensilage 

 which commends it to the appetite of cows. 



That ensilage may usually be furnished more 

 cheaply than other soiling food will be apparent from 

 the fact that it is stored, as it were, in a wholesale way. 

 The food is put into the silo at a small outlay, when thus 

 stored, compared with the cost entailed by the labor 

 necessary to cut and draw the equivalent in soiling food 

 from day to day from the growing crop. As the cows 

 must be brought from the pastures at milking time, the 

 ensilage may also be very conveniently fed to them in 

 the stall. If additional meal is given it cannot be more 

 advantageously fed than by strewing it over the en- 

 silage in the manger. Such feeding does not call for the 

 use of any horse power in the summer when such labor 

 may be pressing, and it effects a great saving in the 

 amount of time occupied daily in the feeding. The cost 

 of constructing the silo should not be overlooked, but if 

 well built of concrete, it should last almost indefinitely, 

 hence the proportion of cost to be charged against any 

 one season would be small. 



In order to provide summer silage in the best man- 



