SILAGE FOR SWINE. 207 



"The ewes are beautiful to look at, square on the back, bright 

 of eye, active in appearance, and when the time comes for the 

 feeding of silage they are anxious for their feed, and in case there 

 is any lapse in time, they soon make their wants known by bleat- 

 ing about the troughs. The flock has been fed silage and good hay 

 in the morning, with oat hay in reasonable abundance in the after- 

 noon and evening. We have about ninety head of breeding ewes, 

 including the lambs referred to, and they have been fed two grain 

 sacks full of silage each day. This is not by any means heavy 

 feeding, and it might be Increased in quantity. This is a matter 

 which we must learn from experience. We have fed the silage 

 with care, not knowing what the results would be if fed heavily." 



Silage for Swine. 



The testimony concerning the value of silage as a food for 

 swine is conflicting, both favorable and unfavorable reports being 

 at hand. Many farmers have tried feeding it to their hogs, but 

 without success. On the other hand, a number of hog-raisers have 

 had good success with silage, and feed it regularly to their swine. 

 It is possible that the difference in the quality of the silage and of 

 the Toethods of feeding practiced explain the diversity of .opinions 

 formed concerning silage as hog food. Col. F. D. Curtiss, the great 

 American authority on the swine industry, states that silage is 

 valuable to add to the winter rations of our swine. Mr. J. W. 

 Pierce of Indiana writes in regard to silage for hogs: "We have 

 •fed our sows, about twenty-five In number, for four winters, equal 

 parts of ensilage and corn meal put into a cooker, and brought up 

 to a steaming state. It has proved to be very beneficial to them. 

 It keeps up the flow of milk of the sows that are nursing the 

 young, equal to when they are running on clover. We find, too, 

 Tvhen the pigs are farrowed, they become more robust, and take 

 to nursing much sooner and better than they did in winters when 

 fed on an exclusively dry diet. We also feed it to our sheep. To 

 sixty head we put out about six bushels of ensilage." Young pigs 

 are exceedingly fond of silage. Feeding experiments conducted at 

 Virginia Experiment Station show that silage is an economical 

 maintenance feed for hogs, when fed in connection with a little 

 corn, but not when fed alone. 



In feeding silage to hogs, care should be taken to feed only 

 very little, a pound or so, at the start, mixing it with corn meal. 



