The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-09-06


amount daily, consuming 11.66 pounds
of dry matter each from the corn crop.
Though producing equal quantities Of
milk, the cows ate much less of the
whole ensilage to produce this milk than
they did of any of the others. The great
est amount of feed to produce the aver
age yield was required by the cows eat
ing corn slower. Each of the ensilage
lots makes q better showing than the
corresponding stocked portion, and each
case where the corn was ground makes
poorer showing than its mate fed with
out husking or grinding.
Total Yields.
The last 1S days of each period was
considered the experimental period. Had
all of the crop been fed under the con-
ditions of the experimental periods the
amounts of milk and fat given in the
following table would have been pro-
duced:
Total matter saved ready for feed in
pounds: Whole ensilage. 6,173; stover en-
silage, 5,97S; corn fodder, 4, 1G9; corn slower,
$3.50. Dry matter fed during experimental
periods in pounds: Whole ensilage 2,413;
stover ensilage, 1886; corn fodder, 27O3;
whole crop, in pounds: Whole ensilage--
milk l2,169, fat 49S; stover ensilage-milk
0,59S, fat 396; corn fodder-milk 10, 1872, fat
$50; corn stover-mill1 $3.50, fat 394
which Fodder Lasted the Longest?
The figures just given of the compare
tive yields are open to the objection that
different quantities of the nonexperi-
mental fodder (the clover rowen and the
grain) would have been fed to produce
them. There is another method of com
parison which is not open to this objec-
ton. 1t was noticed in feeding the crops
from three fields that in each field the
corn stover gave out first, and that there
was always more of the whole ensilage
left than either of the other portions. In
other words. the whole ensilage lasted
the longest and each of the others will
be compared with it. If the corn slower
had been fed until it was all eaten up,
and the whole ensilage had been fed the
same number of days, the butter pro-
duced by the two feeds would have been
exactly the same, but there would have
been a great deal of the ensilage left,
enough to have contained 1,217 pounds
of dry matter, or 26 per cent of the en-
tire amount of the dry matter in the en-
silage.
1t is evident, then, that the whole en-
silage has lasted so much longer than
the corn slower, that the same results
would be obtained by planting less land
if the crop is to be fed as ensilage than
would be required if the crop is to be
handled as corn stover. In other words
one acre of corn made into whole ensi-
lage yielded just as much return as LEG
acres made into corn slower. Calculat-
ing in the same way for the other meth
DDS, it is found that an acre of whole
ensilage is equivalent to LOS acres of
corn fodder, or PC of stover ensilage.
The above is the comparison on the basis
of the production of equal quantities of
butter. If the comparison We're made
of equal products of milk, the relative
advantage of the whole ensilage would
in each case be slightly increased.
The Effect of Drying and Grinding on Di-
gestibilty.
A comparison of the records from the
whole ensilage and the slower ensilage
shows that the ears and husks of the
whole ensilage in the silo lost but 10 per
cent of their dry matter, while the ears
and husks of the slower ensilage, lying
out on the ground in the wet weather
and afterward brought to the barn, lost
% per cent. The COWS on the slower en-
silage ate more dry matter both of stalks
and ears than those on the whole ensi-
lage and gave even less milk. AS there
&c M RI bat ba Gt lie #
one ensilage We're any different from
those of the other, it follows logically
that the dry matter in the ears and husks
that had been dried and ground was of
less value-that is, less digestible value
than that of the ears and husks of the
whole ensilage. The same conclusion is
reached with even stronger probability
from a comparison of the yields from the
corn fodder and corn slower, which diff
fered only in the corn of one being
ground and the other fed whole.
Relative Cost of the Four Methods.
The labor required in feeding was
largely in favor of the ensilage as COM
pared with the whole corn fodder. How
much stronger, then, is the comparison
between whole ensilage and either of the
methods III which the corn was harvest
ed and ground. Leaving out of account
the bad effects of the drying and grind
ing, there is still complete loss of all
the labor and expense of the extra work.
The cost of harvesting and grinding the
corn in this state will be about 16 cents
per each hushel Of So pounds of corn
meal, not counting the labor or expense
of carrying to the mill. This is more
than a quarter of the total value of the
meal and, according to the results of
these experiments, is labor and money
worse than wasted.
w. w. Cooke. Director,