22 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
SILAGE CROPS. 
Corn .—Where corn can be grown to advantage, even though 
it does not mature or even form many ears, but grows an abund¬ 
ance of forage, it is pre-eminently the best silage crop. On our 
plains dry land farms, there are a number of varieties which will 
mature. The White Australia is one commonly used, but it is a 
small yielder of forage and rather difficult to harvest. White and 
Yellow Dent, and Calico varieties are also successfully grown. One 
should grow a variety which does best in his locality from seed 
which has become acclimated. An average yield under dry farm¬ 
ing conditions is from four to six tons per acre. In the irrigated 
sections the Yellow and White Dent varieties are most commonly 
used. The Eureka silage corn is coming to be used more exten¬ 
sively. It grows a great amount of forage with little, if any, grain. 
However, when it is desirable to fill a silo with succulent forage 
from a small area, its use is to be recommended, as it will furnish 
the cheapest succulent roughage. Concentrates can be purchased, 
while succulence cannot very conveniently at times when most 
needed. Ordinary varieties of corn yield from ten to fifteen tons 
per acre under irrigation, while records show Eureka silage corn 
as yielding as high as twenty-six tons and even more per acre. The 
planting may be done as for grain growing, except where sufficient 
moisture will permit; planting more closely in the row is to be 
recommended, as a larger yield of total dry matter per acre is then 
harvested. Eight to twelve inches apart in the row is common for 
silage corn. The custom of drilling thickly, so as to get thin leafy 
stalks with little if any ears, has changed, as it is a recognized fact 
that silage from well eared corn has more nutritive value. 
Sweet Sorghum .—Sweet sorghum or sugar cane has not been 
used much for silage. There exists a prejudice that it makes a very 
sour silage, due to the large amount of sugar it contains. This has 
been disproved at the Kansas Station and the cause of sour silage 
laid to harvesting the crop too early. If cut when mature for seed 
production it made a silage containing less acid than corn silage. 
The bagasse or refuse from cane mills has been used for silage in 
the South, but makes a rather inferior silage, as the leaves are gen¬ 
erally stripped before taking it to the mill. However, it is a by¬ 
product which can be greatly improved by putting into the silo. 
Non-Saccharine Sorghums. —Milo, Kaffir, and Feterita are be¬ 
coming very popular in the dry land sections. The yield per acre 
is generally greater than with corn, averaging from six to ten tons. 
Experiments at the Texas Station, Bulletin No. 13, shows the an¬ 
alyses of kaffir silage almost equal in nutritive value to corn silage. 
At the Kansas Station, Circular No. 28, tests were made with 
