THE SUNFLOWER AS A SILAGE CROP. 19 
yielded the corn most where the conditions were least favorable for 
the corn. He believes that sunflowers will be grown most extensively 
on farms unsuited to the production of silage corn. 
The yields shown in Table 1 seem very favorable to sunflowers 
because the tests were made mainly in those regions where the large- 
growing varieties of corn suited for silage purposes are not adapted 
to the climatic conditions. It can be said also that a large part of 
these yields was obtained under irrigation. (Fig. 7.) Where the 
crops can not be irrigated and in localities where silage varieties of 
Fig. 7. — Sunflowers grown for silage purposes under irrigation on the Scottsbluff Reclama- 
tion project, near Mitchell, Nebr., 1917. Yield, 22.9 tons per acre, green weight. 
corn mature properly, the comparative yields of corn and sunflowers 
are much less favorable to the latter. 
FEEDING VALUE OF SUNFLOWER SILAGE. 7 
Considering the fact that only a few years have elapsed since an 
interest in the use of sunflowers for silage was created by the experi- 
ments at the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station in 1915, a 
comparatively large number of feeding experiments have been car- 
ried out. Most of these indicate that sunflower silage when properly 
made is equal to corn silage for milk-production purposes. Sun- 
flower silage has also been fed at the Montana station to beef cattle, 
breeding ewes, and brood sows with good results. 
7 Prepared with the advice and cooperation of the Animal Husbandry Division of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. 
