CORN SILAGE COMPARED TO ROOTS. 209 



Additional Testimony as to the Value of SUage. 



Corn silage compared with root crops. — Root crops are not 

 grown to any large extent in this country,- but occasionally an old- 

 country farmer will grow roots for his stock, because his father 

 did so, and his grandfather and great-grandfather before him. 

 This is what a well-known English writer, H. Henry Rew, says 

 as to the comparative value of roots and silage, from the stand- 

 point of an English farmer: 



"The root crop has, for about a century and a. half, formed the 

 keystone of arable farming; yet it is the root crop whose position 

 is most boldly challenged by silage. No doubt roots are expensive 

 — say £10 per acre as the cost of producing an ordinary crop of 

 turnips — and precarious, as the experience of the winter of 1887-8 

 has once more been notably exemplified In many parts of the 

 country. In a suggestive article In the Farming World Almanac 

 for 1888. Mr. Primrose McConnell discusses the question: 'Are 

 Turnips a Necessary Crop?" and sums up his answer in the follow- 

 ing definite conclusion: 



" 'Everything, in short, is against the u?e of roots, either as a 

 cheap and desirable food for any kind of live stock, as a crop 

 suited for the fallow break, which cleans the land at little outlay, 

 or as one which preserves or Increases the fertility of the soil." 



"If the growth of turnips Is abandoned or restricted, ensilage 

 comes in usually to assist the farmer in supplying their place. 

 * * * When one comes to compare the cultivation of silage 

 crops with that of roots, there are two essential points in favor of 

 the former. One is their smaller expense, and the other Is their 

 practical certainty. The farmer who makes silage can make cer- 

 tain of his winter store of food, whereas he who has only his root 

 crop may find himself left in the lurch at a time when there is 

 little chance of making other provision." 



'We have accurate information as to the yields and cost of pro- 

 duction of roots and corn, silage In this country from a number of 

 American experiment stations. This shows that the tonnage of 

 green or succulent feed per acre Is not materially different In case 

 of the two crops, generally speaking. But when the quantities of 

 dry matter harvested In the crop are considered, the com has been 

 found to yield about twice as much as the ordinary root crops. 

 According to data published by the Pennsylvania Station, the cost 



