SOY BEANS AND SORGHUM. 153 



The corn and peas are tied into bundles and these run through 

 the silage cutter. The out corn and peas are carefully leveled ofC 

 and trampled down in the silo, and about a foot cover of green 

 corn, straw or cottonseed hulls placed on top of the siloed mass. 

 As , in case of all legumes, it is safest to wet the cover thoroughly 

 with at least two gallons of water per square foot of surface. This 

 will seal the siloed mass thoroughly and will prevent the air from 

 working in from the surface and spoiling considerable of the 

 silage on top. 



Robertson Silage Mixture. — A similar effort of combiniijg 

 several feeds for the silo is found in the so-called Robertson Silage 

 Mixture for the silo, named after Prof. Robertson ' in Canada. 

 This is made up of cut Indian corn, sunflower seed heads, and 

 horse beans in the proportion of 1 acre corn, % acre horse beans, 

 and % acre sunflowers. The principle back ; of the practice is to 

 furnish a feed richer in protein substance than corn, and thus 

 avoid the purchase of large quantities of expensive protein foods 

 like bran, oil meal, etc. Feeding experiments conducted with the 

 Robertson Silage Mixture for cows at several experiment stations 

 have given very satisfactory results, and have shown that this 

 silage mixture can be partly substituted for the grain ration of 

 milch cows without causing loss of flesh or lessening the produc- 

 tion of milk or fat. Fifteen pounds of this silage may be consid- 

 ered equivalent to three or four pounds of grain feeds. The prac- 

 tice has not, however, been adopted to any great extent, so far as 

 is known, owing to the difficulty of securing, a good quality of 

 silage from the mixiture and of growing the horse beans success- 

 fully. 



Soy beans are another valuable silage crop. According to the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture the soy bean is highly nutritive, 

 gives a heavy yield, and is easily cultivated. The vigorous late 

 varieties are well adapted for silage. On account of their highly 

 nitrogenous character, soy beans are most economical when 

 mixed with corn, and like other legumes they Improve the silage 

 by tending to counteract the acid reaction of the corn. The mix- 

 ture also produces a more nearly balanced ration than either crop 

 alone, and avoids the necessity of using purchased concentrates 

 such as grain, bran, cottonseed, etc. Some have found that the 

 soy beans save at least half the grain bill. The crops may be 

 mixed to best advantage for both cutting and feeding, by placing 



