35o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 22 
Live Stock Matters 
ENSILAGE FOR HORSE FEEDING. 
IS IT A 8 A F K FOOD FOR HORSES? 
Have you had any experience in feeding horses 
or mules on ensilage? If so, will you tell us 
whether this Is a safe food for such animals ? If 
you have known cases where ensilage injured 
horses, will you tell us how it affected them, and 
when it appeared to be injurious? We would 
very much like to know whether this cheap food 
can safely be used for horses. 
Do Not Feed Too Much. 
I have never fed any ensilage to my 
own horses or even to cattle, but I have 
known it fed to horses without any 
apparent injury, and the animals seemed 
to thrive very well upon it. My opinion 
is that ensilage can be safely fed to 
horses if proper precaution be used by 
beginning with small quantities, just as 
we should do in feeding carrots, western 
corn, or other food to which the animals 
have not been accustomed for some 
months or years. It is well known that 
sudden changes of food, when given in 
full feeds, are prone to produce indiges¬ 
tion, colic, founder and other diseases. 
Another precaution that should be ob¬ 
served with ensilage is the allowance of 
only a moderate quantity at any time. 
I think that much of the trouble that 
has arisen from feeding this article of 
diet to horses has been due to the ex¬ 
travagant manner in which it has been 
dealt out to them. It was cheap, and 
plenty and green, and many feeders 
have been altogether too lavish in dump¬ 
ing basketfuls into the mangers. Many 
of the above remarks will apply also to 
ensilage as fed to cattle, but it is assured 
that cattle can take a much larger quan¬ 
tity of this sort of fodder with impunity, 
than horses. edwabd moore. 
Ensilage Improved an Old Horse. 
About five years ago, much was said 
in the press about injury to horses and 
mules from feeding ensilage. We had 
been feeding our work horses on ensi¬ 
lage to a limited extent, without any 
apparent injurious effects. Several of 
my friends had been practicing this same 
method of feeding with safety, but to 
make an extended test, I purchased an 
old, attenuated horse for 825, and fed it 
exclusively on ensilage and what straw 
t cared to take during an entire winter. 
The animal soon begun to improve, and 
by spring we were working it, and had 
no difficulty in selling it at a slight 
advance on the cost. Although not bear¬ 
ing upon this subject, it may be stated 
that we have fed ensilage to mature 
hogs for several winters. The portions 
of ensilage which become moldy where 
it comes in contact with the walls of the 
silo are thrown out into the manure 
yard, and the hogs have access to it. 
They seem to like it and thrive upon it, 
though but little other food is given to 
them. Notwithstanding all this, horses 
which are driven or worked hard might 
be troubled with flatulency of the bowels 
if fed largely or exclusively on ensilage. 
I. P. ROBERTS. 
Observations in Pennsylvania. 
While I have had no personal experi¬ 
ence in feeding horses or mules on ensi¬ 
lage, 1 have had frequent opportunity 
to observe its effects when used for this 
purpose. It is not a common food for 
horses in the vicinity of Philadelphia, 
for the reason that the farmers believe 
that it will cause the disease known as 
cerebro-spinal meningitis, which is a par¬ 
alytic affection that is, probably, caused 
by some of the chemical products of par¬ 
ticular fermentations. I have known of 
a number of outbreaks of this disease on 
farms on which this ensilage was fed to 
horses, and there has appeared to be 
some connection between the food and 
the disease; but there are many more 
instances that can be quoted to show 
that the disease is not necessarily de¬ 
pendent on food of this character. As a 
matter of fact, the fermentation that re¬ 
sults in the production of this poisonous 
substance can occur in damp food of any 
kind, and some of the worst outbreaks 
which I have known have occurred 
where horses were fed on brewers’ 
grains, or were kept in stables where 
brewers’ grains were fed to cattle. 
About two years ago, cerebro-spinal 
meningitis appeared on a farm near by, 
and several horses died; it was sup¬ 
posed that the ensilage had caused dis¬ 
ease. I secured three barrels of it and 
fed it to a colt at the veterinary depart¬ 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania, 
and failed to observe any bad effects. 
Aside from the production of this dis¬ 
ease, I do not think that ensilage is in¬ 
jurious to horses, and believe that it can 
be used profitably. If any damp food is 
used for horses, their mangers should be 
kept scrupulously clean, and all of their 
surroundings should be kept in a clean, 
dry condition. As this is not always 
possible when horses are kept in the 
old-fashioned barns with stone base¬ 
ments an'd small windows, the surround¬ 
ings must be carefully considered before 
this question is decided in any given 
case. LEONARD PEARSON. 
Excellent Success with Ensilage. 
We have had a large experience in 
feeding horses on eiisilage. We have 
wintered horses on it each year, for sev¬ 
eral years, and are keeping a large num¬ 
ber in that way this season. At one of 
our stables, where we haveyounghorses 
and brood mares, we are feeding twice 
a day on ensilage, once a day on dry 
corn fodder, cut, with one or two feeds 
of hay a week. The horses are all in 
fine condition, healthy, and are doing 
well. We feed no grain, excepting ears 
that were in the ensilage. At one farm, 
for several years, we have wintered our 
horses almost entirely on ensilage. They 
have become each season very fleshy— 
the only trouble being that they are a 
little too fat, and rather too soft for 
hard work—like horses on grass. But 
before commencing our heavy work in 
the spring, we change them gradually 
on to hay, with a little oats, and by this 
means, they have been ready for a good 
spring’s business, and have stood the 
work to our entire satisfaction. Old 
horses, especially, seem to do exceed¬ 
ingly well on ensilage. We have never 
seen any bad effects from the use of this 
feed on horses, when judiciously used. 
In one or two instances, where the feed 
was entirely ensilage, the bowels have 
become rather loose, but this is easily 
remedied by judicious feeding and occa¬ 
sional changes to dry feed. We see no 
reason why our horses are not as healthy 
when fed in this way as in any other 
way we have ever wintered them. 
SMITHS & POWELL CO. 
Three Short Notes. 
I have had no experience in the feed¬ 
ing of ensilage to horses. I can see no 
reason, however, why ensilage could not 
safely form, at least, a portion of the 
ration. If fed in too large proportion, 
I am of the opinion that it would prove 
to be too laxative, especially for road 
horses. But to horses doing little work 
during the winter, I believe the ensilage 
could be fed to advantage. f. l. k. 
I can say, in regard to the use of en¬ 
silage for horses, cattle or hogs, that for 
five years, I have used it and my horses 
eat it just as well as corn, and it never 
has hurt any of them. I have fed it 
till June. The cows eat it, all they can 
get, and thrive on it, but hogs will not 
eat it at all. The only trouble with me, 
is, that I do not have as much as I want 
of it. A. B. s. 
I have had no extended experience in 
feeding horses and mules on ensilage. I 
have fed it to a slight extent, both here 
and in Tennessee, but to no part’cular 
advantage. The most extensive case 
that I know of its use was by Mr. M. W. 
Dunham, of Wayne, Ill , who used en¬ 
silage for a while on his horse farm. In 
a letter to me in 1895, he wrote that the 
results “were so unsatisfactory that I 
discontinued its use. I don’t consider it 
a fit food for them ”. Mr. Dunham is 
one of the largest horse breeders in the 
world, and I feel quite sure has fed en¬ 
silage to his horses more extensively 
than anybody else. A friend in southern 
Indiana fed ensilage to his horses and 
some of them died, it is supposed as a 
result of eatiDg it. The ensilage ap¬ 
pears to cause fermentation in the stom¬ 
ach that produces, in some instances 
where fed, fatal results. I am of the 
opinion that the stomach of the horse is 
not capable of digesting foods of a fer¬ 
mented character. c. s plumb 
FACTS ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS. 
It is no egotism to say that Vermont 
is copiDg with tuberculosis more suc¬ 
cessfully than any other State. The cat¬ 
tle commissioners here had the disease 
thrust upon them, the farmers have most 
intelligently cooperated, and the dis¬ 
ease is being eradicated from the State. 
At the beginning, the commissioners 
knew almost nothing of the disease, but 
in testing 20,000 cattle, they have learned 
some facts which ought to be known by 
all keepers of neat stock. 
It is often said that tuberculosis is the 
same as the consumption of which cows 
died years ago; but they occasionally now 
find an old cow in the last stages of this 
disease, and some facts have been learned 
about it. It is not contagious. It does 
not react to the tuberculin test, and the 
disease is wholly confined to the lungs, 
in which is found a thin, watery matter. 
In all these poinls, it differs from tuber¬ 
culosis. When tuberculosis gets into a 
herd, the only way to stop it is to re¬ 
move every diseased animal as indicated 
by the tuberculin test. While sanitary 
conditions have much to do with the 
spread of the disease, it cannot be got 
rid of by sanitation. The disease is found 
in some of the best built barns, and it is 
not found in some of the poorest and 
most unsanitary. Bad sanitary condi¬ 
tions cannot originate the disease. In 
all the 900 diseased cattle which have 
been found in Vermont, the disease has 
(Continued on next v<Mje.) 
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CLEMSON AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
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Clemson College, S. C., April 23, 1897. 
The De Laval Separator Co., New York. 
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