20 BULLETIN" 716, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
years they produced 90 per cent of the concentrates used and prac- 
tically all the roughage. They considered corn their most impor- 
tant cereal and the cheapest source of concentrates. The importance 
of corn in furnishing feed for the live stock of this area may be seen 
from Table X, page 42. During this five-year period 56 per cent 
of the total feed requirements, exclusive of pasture, was supplied by 
corn — 75 per cent of the concentrates and 32 per cent of the rough- 
age. All farmers raised corn and much the greater part of it was 
grown from grain. Occasionally on a few farms a small acreage of 
the corn was planted so late or had eared so poorly that it was har- 
vested for fodder only. Of the total corn acreage for the five-year 
period about one-sixth was used in growing corn for the silo. 
Prior to the period covered by this survey there had been but one 
silo in the township, and it was put up in 1911. The number of 
silos has increased until at the close of the five-year period, Novem- 
ber '1, 1916, there were 22 in the entire township, the greater number 
of which were built in 1915 and 1916. Of course, the proportion of 
the corn acreage grown for the silo has increased each year and de- 
cidedly so in the last two years. In 1912, 12 per cent of the corn 
acreage on the 25 farms was put in the silo and in 1916, 30 per cent. 
Whether or not putting up silos has increased the corn acreage on 
those farms can not be stated positively, yet the data show that on 
the farms which had silos during the last two years, but did not have 
them during the first three years, the corn acreage for the last two 
years had increased 13 per cent over that of the first three years, and 
that on the farms which have no silos the corn acreage for the last 
two years has increased but 5 per cent over that of the first three 
years. No doubt these silos were built in order that more stock might 
be kept, an assumption substantiated by the data from the farmers 
with silos and from those without. On the farms that put up silos 
the amount of stock kept has increased 22 per cent, while on the 
farms that did not put up silos the amount of stock increased but 5 
per cent, or just as much as the corn acreage was increased. While 
the farmers who put up silos increased the amount of stock kept 
much more than they increased their corn acreage, yet this greater 
increase was not altogether because of the silos, for there was also 
an increase of $2.57 per animal unit in the amount of feed bought. 
By increasing the corn acreage 13 per cent, building silos, and pur- 
chasing a small additional amount of feed, they were enabled to 
keep 22 per cent more stock than they had been keeping. 
A few farms were found which occasionally grew small acreages 
of cowpeas or soy beans, which were mixed with the corn when 
filling the silos. 
