The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-06-10
sILOS AND ENsILAGE.
Address Delivered by W. L. Williamson Be-
fore the Georgia Dairymen's Association.

4SAV S0O NSO4 64o O04A A4o0 . 0SSVO46b4O0'
At the last meeting of the Georgia
Dairymen's Association, President
Redding introduced Mr.. W. L. VIII
Hanson, of Harmony Grove, who, he
said, had long experience in the sue
cessful conduct of dairy and in the
use of silos and ensilage.
Mr.. Williamson then spoke as fol-
lows:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: !:
[ am asked by visitors to my dairy
at home more frequently perhaps than
any other question, What is the best
feed for COW?
The idea seems to be that all feeds
are alike in kind; that they only differ
in the amount of digestible nutriment
contained, that if a COW could eat
enough wheat straw for example to
sustain her, that wheat straw would
be all that she would need, or that if
she could get enough cotton-seed meal
or corn meal, that that particular
thing is all she would need.
Ny reply of course has to be a little
extended to such questions. I have to
explain that there are only a few feeds
that any ways near approach the
proper standard-in other words, that
contain the proper proportions of the
different feed elements. Wheat bran
and pea vine hay are almost perfectly
balanced, and a COW would be sustain
ed and do fairly well on a ration of
these two feeds, or of either one of
them, and if there was nothing else in
volved, I could answer them and rec
ommend one of these things.
VARIETY OF FEEDS NEEDED
But in successful feeding, a COW re-
quires a variety. She not only re-
quires the food elements in the proper
proportion, but she will do better when
given a number of different foods. She
can use more feed with better relish
and can make better returns for what
she eats. There is another peculiarity
about a cows food. In a state of ma
ture they eat nothing but grass and
bulky feed, and on ordinary wild grass,
which is not very nutritious, they can
only eat enough and use enough to
maintain the growth and conditions of
the COW and to raise the young. do
not think they could eat enough wild
grass to make dairy COWS. Of course
they could do it on a variety of cult
waited grasses.
FEEDING FOR MILK
If you make a dairy COW out of her
if you develop her beyond her natural
condition, you have got to feed her
upon something from which she can
get the excess of feed elements needed
to make milk. She has to have some
thing that is easily digested, and that
she can eat and get the required ele-
ments, and so in making up her ra-
tions, it is necessary to feed a certain
amount of bulky, and a certain amount
of concentrated feed. Now, with this
explanation, I will have to say that if
/ was called on to name the best coarse
food, one that we could least afford tc
do without, I would have no hesitancy
in saying instantly corn ensilage.
Pea hay contains nearly as much
protein as wheat bran. It only lacks
two pounds I think, to the hundred III
having as much protein, and so they
are very nearly equal. But even with
pea vine hay or corn ensilage, I would
leave off the pea vine.
I have fed for a number of years
green sorghum. The cattle run on
Bermuda pasture, and we supplement
that with green sorghum about all
they will eat We find, however, in ou1
experience, that COWS do very much
better on ensilage than they do on
sorghum and pasture. I think that
sorghum has some strong advantages
in the way of resisting drouths, and ]
expect to continue planting it, but
corn ensilage is the best in my judg-
ment.
THE VALUE OF CORN ENsILAGE
I find that ensilage gives better re-
suits. The same way with the corn
fodder, that is, the cured corn cut ear
and all and fed. The comparisons that
have been made. on corn fodder and
corn ensilage at the experiment sta
tions show about the same nutrient
tooD+an+ and the exneriments as to the