CROPS SUITABLE FOR THE SILO. 329 



persons recommend storing these foods in alternate 

 la3'ers, since they consider it more practicable to store 

 in layers than to mix the food, as it is easier to handle 

 first one food and then the other when storing, than 

 to handle the two simultaneously. The mixing of 

 the food may be done when feeding it. But, if it is 

 thought better to mix them at the time of storing, no 

 serious obstacle stands in the way. This method of 

 storing tends to make a more perfectly balanced 

 ration. The proportions of each product required to 

 make a balanced ration will vary with variations in 

 the analyses of the crops. But even when these 

 crops are stored thus, it may not always be wise to 

 store them in those proportions that will exactly 

 adapt the food to the needs of the animals to which 

 it is to be fed. It may be impossible to do so because 

 of a preponderance in the supply of one or the other 

 of the crops grown. If it is true that corn, or sor- 

 ghum exercises a preservative influence on the other 

 foods, it would seem to be necessary to have a con- 

 siderable preponderance of them in the silo. 



It is easily possible to grow the soy bean and the 

 cowpea so that they will be in season for being put 

 into the silo when corn or sorghum are also in season. 

 But the same cannot be said of the common pea or 

 the common vetch. 



The horse bean has been grown to determine its 

 value for silage at least in an experimental way in 

 the vicinity of Ottawa, Ont. The object sought 

 was to increase the protein content in the silage. 

 Where the beans can be profitably grown and mixed 

 with corn in the silo, the plan of using them thus 

 would seem to be commendable, but the areas in 



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