ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. nl 



found it was with a single dairy. I went to tlie premises and 

 found they were feeding, I think it was twenty-five cows from 

 a silo that was 20x25 feet, and they could not keep ahead of 

 decay with the amount of stock they were feeding. Now, 

 feeding in that a- ay will make bad milk. I have heard gentle- 

 men say that a cow will take care of unsound food, but how 

 long will she keep well, eating that kind of stuff? 



Mr. Cooledge: Isn't it a fact that the condensing factories 

 at Elgin will not receive milk from silo-fed cows? 



Mr. Gurler: Yes, and I admit that there is more risk 

 v/here you are feeding ensilage than where you are feeding 

 dry feed, and T presume if I was running a condensed milk 

 factory I should do the same thing that they are doing, be- 

 cause there is more risk in it. 1 am not getting up here to 

 advocate the silo in particular. I do not care whether a man 

 puts his corn in the silo or in the shock. I am advocating 

 corn. Of course the feeding of ensilage is comparatively 

 new with us and we have got much to learn yet. While I 

 acknowledge that there is more risk in feeding ensilage, on 

 the other hand, I visited only a short time ago, a dairy that 

 furnishes milk for a milk laboratory in one of our large cities. 

 That farm was being managed by a college-educated man, 

 one of the brightest men I have ever come in contact with, 

 and his coarse fodder was ensilage entirely. I know of other 

 instances where ensilage is being fed in a similar way and 

 where the milk goes into a more delicate trade than it does 

 at the condensing factory. I find that I keep my cows in a 

 little better condition when I feed them ensilage — their 

 condition is almost perfect. My herd will go out in the 

 spi iiio' aprl tlnn^ will bp ^H «hed off by the first of May, whila 

 my neighbors' cows will run along till the first of July. It 

 is nearly like a grass food. I think sometimes that a fair 

 comparison is to compare it with dried fruit and canned fruit. 

 Of course the silo does not do as perfect work as we do ia 

 canning our fruit, neither do we do as perfect work witli 

 our dried corn as with our dried fruit; but you take a year 

 like this, and we we have a great advantage with the silo. 

 Our shocked corn is damaged much more than the corn that 

 we put in the silo this year. 



