The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1897-02-26

, can be carried through the winter Of
dry food, but it will not be produc
tive of good milk or butter.
1t takes about seventeen pounds o
food to keep a COW twenty four hours
The food must be palatabte. Mi
succulent food with dry grass if yol
would do we'll and make butter milk
We notice that cows on early pasture
with us of the North, that mean
June,) give more milk and richer
Why? June grasses are succulent ant
easily digested, and proper digestion
is every thing. No man can succeed
in feeding COWS entirely on dry feed
We must give them food that is pala
table. Bulk need not be considered
The preparation of the food is more
necessary. Many farmers make mis-
take in the time of cutting their gras:
1t should be cut before the seed is fully
ripe. The woody fiber of wheat straw
timothy hay or coruS!alks amounts t(
about as much as pine shavings OF
hickory chips, and there is about a:
as much sustenance in them Promp
and careful attention should be giver
to the time of cutting.
The main question before the farm
ers of today is: What is the best
kind of food for the dairy COW, ant
what is the best and cheapest method
OF raising and using it ?" In order tc
properly compete with the Western
men we must grow cheaper food.
For many. hay is the principal de
pendance, and repeat that the feed
ing value of this product depends en-
tirely upon the time of its being cut.
Clover hay-and good clover can be
raised at the rate of two tons per acre
is grand food, if it is cut before it il
too ripe. But of all foods for dairy
purposes, cornstalks are the best and
cheapest. And this brings US to the
question. What is the easiest, cheap
est and best method of preserving
them" The answer is, BY aid Of The
| SiLo."
Let us look in the first place at the
time of cutting. The right period is
when the glaze appears upon the stalk.
Just at or before the time of tasselling,
the food value of an acre of corn is
about fourteen dollars; two weeks af,
terward that food value is about
twenty-six or twenty-seven dollars,
but if cut when it begins to glaze, that
value amounts to about fifty-eight
dollars.
What is the result of ensilage? By
its aid we are able to feed succulent
food just at the time when it is most
| needed, and we can make milk in
| December as fresh and as rich as in
June. There is no food which will
equal corn silage, properly taken care
of. Good silage will make good milk.
Let HE choose the men who prepare
it," said DR.. Morris, land l will pre-
| fer the silo above all else"
Another question is, What shall
we feed with ensilage ~ Well, there
are several things. Peas, cotton seed
meal, wheat bran are ali good. How
should they he fed with ensilaget"
Our plan is simply this. Early in the
spring we plant about ten acres, get
| ting them in as soon as we can posi-
| bly, get the ground i'll order. The peas
should be planted at least four or five
inches deep. Remember that they
will go deep in the ground. About
four or five days afterward we SOW
oats on the same ground, and when
the peas begin to pod and the oats to
lead we cut and feed them. We find
! that this combination gives us the
best milk flow and the highest flavor
! ed butter We make hay of the stalks
and oats and it makes a good feed.
The grains ground together make a
good grain food. We have fed peas
from the Goth of August. We SOW p
bushels to the acre; hat is, a bushel
and peck of each We feed it half
and half with ensilage. You can keep
on sowing the mixture so as to cut at
various times through the summer.
The proper ration when feeding
ensilage, is hard to determine. That
must depend on circumstances and on
the COWS. There are other things
which DO well. Buckwheat middlings
will make a good flow of milk. Ifyou
are to dete rmine between them, decide
in favor of those which contains the
greater quantity of Albumenoids and
Carbohydrates. If you are to chose
| between oats at % cents and wheat
bran at IA cents take the oats. There
is an advantage in having large num-
Der of ears of corn in the ensilage.
ANALYSIS developes the fact that there
is but little more sugar in sweet corn
than there is in the common field corn.
The stalk of the sugar corn possesses
this one advantage; it holds more
moisture than the field corn, and when
the stalk is dry the cow don't like it.
Mr.. Geo. f. Silver, here stated that
he had never had any trouble in feed
ing sugar corn fodder, COWS eating it
up, root and branch.
The percentage of the full feeding
power of corn, that is lost in fermen'
tation, depends entirely upon how the
silo is made. If that is properly done
and the stuff is put in carefully, there
is but little loss. The principle of the
silo is the heating process. When the
mass is heated to 1909, all germ life is
killed, and rot is impossible. Iwould
advise that the silo be made of wood
and paper. (Mr. J. Lawrence McCor,
mick here suggested that stone silos
give moro satisfaction in the neigh
borhood of Bel Air) A stone silo in
our country would freeze.
Being asked, what is the proper size
of silo for fifteen cows, Mr.. Eastman
responded-Allow for each COW 40 lbs
or one cubic foot of space. l would
say about fifteen feet square, with a
depth of twenty-five feet. Then
double the size, trying to get as much
depth as possible. The weight of the
stuff help to preserve all under it and
it will keep better. Ensilage, think
would be better for fattening cattle
than all dry food.
The following answers were made
to questions propounded to Messrs
Eastman and Rice.
MI. ;.l,, 6 oil