19-21.] 



Roots r. Silage for Dairy Co^vs. 



615 



Mansfield, M.A., of the School of Agriculture, Cambridge, 

 with the following results. For purposes of comparison the 

 analysis of the silage upon which the experimental cows were fed 

 in 1916 is also given. 



Oat and Tare Silage on luhich experimental Cows were fed. 





1921 sample. 



1916 sample. 



Water 



73.55 



72.30 



Ether Extract 



1.37 



1.14 



Albuminoids 



3.10 



4.96 



Carbohydrates ... 



12.09 



9.75 



Fibre 



8.40 



9.43 



Ash 



1.49 



2.42 





100.00 



100.00 



Sand and Silicates 



.27 





It is worthy of note that the 1916 sample contains consider- 

 ably more albuminoids than the 1921 sample. The 1916 

 sample was made from oats and tares sown at the rate of 

 1 bushel of oats and 2 bushels of tares pei>acre, while the 1921 

 sample was made from the produce of a mixture of 2 bushels 

 of oats and 1 bushel of tares. The larger proportion of the 

 leguminous plant (tares) in the 1916 sample may account for 

 the larger proportion of albuminoids present. 



Mr. Clement Smith's herd of cows at Searson's Farm is 

 recorded by the Suffolk ^lilk Recording Society, and the milk 

 of the cows under experiment was weighed daily under their 

 auspices, the milk recording sheets issued by the ^Ministry of 

 Agriculture being used for this purpose. In the Ministry's 

 milk recording scheme, when daily records are kept, the record 

 sheet commences at Sunday afternoon's milking and continues 

 until and includes the next Sunday morning's milking. The 

 week ending 30th January, therefore, includes the afternoon 

 milking of 23rd January and the morning milking of BOth 

 January. For the sake of simplicity it was decided to utilise 

 this plan in the experiment. 



In order to give the cows an opportunity of becoming 



accustomed to their diet they were fed on their respective 



rations for a preliminary week, i.e., the week ending 



23rd January. The records in this preliminary week were not 



taken into account. The plan was adopted of changing over 



the rations, i.e., feeding one lot of cows for four weeks ^nth 



silage, after which they received roots, whilst the cows which 



received roots during the first four weeks of the experiment 



Analysed by Mr. G. S. Robertson, M.Sc., East Anglian Institute of 

 Agriculture, Chelmsford. 



