244 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
bran, or wheat bran and oats, throughout the season, in order to 
enable them to maintain a maximum production. 
The use of soiling crops or summer silage on dairy farms is an 
important feature of intensive dairy farming, as two to three times 
as much green forage may be secured per acre by this system as by 
pasturing ; it also enables the farmer to maintain, so far as possible, 
the milk production of his herd during late summer, when hot 
weather and flies combine to reduce the production of the cows, 
both for the time being and for the balance of the lactation period. 
A variety of soiling crops is fed in different sections: Corn, alfalfa, 
peas and oats, rye, rape, etc. (see p. 96). Some of these crops, 
such as rye, rape, and oats, should be fed with care in small quanti- 
ties at the start, and always after milking, so that they will not’ 
taint the milk or the products made therefrom. 
Summer silage is a highly-prized feed on many American dairy 
farms. Generally a small, separate silo is filled in the fall for the 
purpose of feeding the silage in late summer, when drouth and 
hot weather are likely to cause serious damage to the pasture. The 
most common silage crops are corn, alfalfa, and red clover,—corn 
being of most importance in the greater portion of our dairy sec- 
tions. Thirty pounds of soiling crops or silage are an average 
allowance for dairy cows on poor pastures; as much as sixty pounds 
of soiling crops or forty pounds of silage may be fed in the case of 
large cows during seasons of drought when pastures are scant. 
Winter Feeding of Dairy Cows.—The cows are fed in the 
stable during one-half of the year, or more in the North, and, as 
the system of feeding during this period is necessarily most ex- 
pensive, the profit of the dairy will depend, to a large extent,-on 
the economy of the winter feeding. Economical feeding in cases 
of good dairy cows does not mean scant supplies, but the kind of 
feeds and feed combinations that will be likely to produce best re- 
sults for the least money. Only cows that respond to liberal feed- 
ing. and are fed liberally will prove profitable dairy animals. 
Succulent feeds should be provided for dairy cows during their 
entire lactation period whenever possible; silage and roots are the 
main available feeds of this character during the winter ‘period, 
and in corn-growing sections, at least, the former has been found 
to yield the largest and cheapest amounts of feed materials per 
unit of area. Roots are, however, valuable substitutes where there 
is no silo on the farm; they are fed especially in Canada and by 
farmers who adhere more or less to European methods of agri- 
culture. In the case of heavy producers and cows “ out of condi- 
