44 Bulletin 827, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 
wintering cattle. Every effort should be made to increase the pro- 
duction of forage crops, especially the legume hays and silage crops. 
To save roughages properly in that region, where summer rains are 
frequent and the moist atmosphere favors rapid spoiling in the field, 
more attention must be given to storing under cover. Sufficient mow 
space should be provided in barns to store all hays. 
Silage may be made largely regardless of any weather conditions. 
Practically the entire feeding value of a plant is utilized when stored 
in the silo: this is a particular advantage with corn, which is the 
most reliable silage crop grown in the Piney Woods. 
Corn is cut for silage at a time when the plant has the highest 
feeding value. In the case of the rank-growing southern varieties of 
corn about half of the feeding value of the plant is left after the 
ear is removed. When fed as silage the entire plant is consumed 
without waste, but if the ear is snapped and the stalks left in the 
field the sustenance leaches away rapidly, much of the feed is 
trampled down, and only a small percentage of the feeding value is 
utilized. Cutting the corn and curing into stover give uncertain 
results unless it is protected from the weather. 
Corn and velvet beans make the greatest tonnage per acre of all 
silage crops grown in the Piney Woods and the silage has a very high 
feeding value due to the high protein content. The difficulty of 
harvesting the crop because of the heavy vine growth is the only 
obstacle to the general use of velvet beans as silage. 
Where lumber is so plentiful a silo should be on every farm where 
cattle are raised, but on inquiry of all owners of pure-bred bulls, so 
far as lists are available, it was found that less than 1 per cent were 
using silos. The silo is a most valuable piece of equipment for 
the cattle farm and should be constructed even before cattle are 
purchased. 
Velvet beans, in view of their adaptation to the region and the 
enormous quantity produced, should be the chief concentrated feed 
used. The value of this feed is not fully appreciated and a large 
proportion of the total acreage is now being used as pasture in a 
wasteful manner. Inquiry in every county of the Pine}' Woods 
brought out the fact that it is almost a universal practice to pasture 
all beans used as feed on the farm where grown. Most farmers 
provide no other feed for wintering cattle and many men use velvet- 
bean pasture in preference to silos. 
Velvet beans in the pod are equal in feeding value to wheat bran 
and have about half the value of high-grade cottonseed meal. Cer- 
tainly no farmer would allow his breeding cattle to run to the bin 
and eat their fill of bran or cottonseed meal. Turning stock cattle 
on bean fields means practically the same thing as giving them a 
fattening ration of a protein feed instead of a maintenance ration. 
