The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1916-07-14

from the Missouri Agricultural Expert
ment Station.)
Silage is to animals about what
canned vegetables, fruit and kraut are
to people. 1t helps to furnish bulk, TO
save the necessity for buying more ex-
pensiVe feed, and to make the whole
feed taste good to the animal. 1t helps
to give the advantage of summer pas
lures during winter or during late
summer droughts. Just ms canned fruit
is sometimes used even during the
summer time, some farmers use sllage
even during the best grazing season
of the summer.
Corn is the principal crop used In
the siage partly because it makes
more tons of silage per acre and partly
because it is improved by being made
into silage more than most other crops
OF course, there are conditions I'M
der which silage must be very care
fully used and others under which 1t
must not be used at all, but IL Is
worthy of so much more wider use
than it has at present that the Mis-
souri, agricultural experiment station
is spending n great deal of time ana
effort to find out exactly when ana
how it should be used and to secure
it's use under the proper circum-
stances. Almost every member OF the
staff is giving some attention to this
problem from Director F. b. Mumford
to one of his younger students who
took home plans last summer from his
farm engineering courses and built
115-ton silo on his fathers farm. After
careful investigation Director Num-
ford finds that cattle can be wintered
very economically on ration made up
largely of silage.
In one experiment, ration OF corn
silage and clover hay without grain
fed to yearling cattle for $50 days re-
suited in gain of 200 pounds for the
feeding period of 80 days, at total
cost of SLIGO or a cost of 5.5 cents a
pound of gain, as compared with a
total cost of $15.75, and rs cents a
pound, when similar lot of cattle
was fed on 6 pounds Of shelled corn
per head per day and clover hay.
These results have been confirmed
In other experiments which all point
TO the conclusion that when silage con-
stitutes the major portion of the ra-
ton fed to wintering or stock cattle,
the cost Of wintering is much reduced.
Slage for Horses.
In planting corn and building silos
this year probably more farmers than
ever before are providing silage sup
ply for horses. The old feeling that
silage was good for dairy cows only
was long ago discarded, but the horse
is perhaps the last more important ami
NAL on the farm to prove that it could
make good use of silage. While es-
pecial care must be taken not TO use
moldy or other inferior silage or to
depend too exclusively on silage, the
recent tests of the Missouri agricultur-
nj experiment station and long eXpe-
rience of n few farmers and horsemen,
indicate that cost OF upkeep can be re-
duced and horse kept in better con-
dition If from to 20 pounds of silage
are fed per day. OF course, the posi-
bility of saving depends on the condi'
tons and prices of other feeds ana
the amount to be fed depends upon the
same things and upon the size of the
horse and the amount of silage he VIII
eat. Different horses of the same size
vary on this point.
In the tests at the Missouri station
silage was fed as part of the ration
during the last two winters with favor
able results. except in case of one
three-year-old Percheron mare which
refused the silage at first, then ate II
when her feed was reduced, but soon
after had to be taken out of the eX'
pertinent because of distemper and in
digestion. The horses that received
silnge were more thrifty, and their
coats were In better condition, and
cost less to feed than those which
were fed exclusively nonsllage rations
AS silage is low in dry matter and
the horse has not sufficient digestive
capacity to live entirely on such bulky
feed, II is important to remember tc
use alfalfa, cowpeas, or other legumt
hay, or perhaps even n little grain
for horses that are not at work, while
growing horses, or horses at light
work should certainly have grain.
Spoiled silaee.
Prof. G. II. Eckles, head Of the dairy
department, has recently made care
full studies Of the silage In wood, brick