The Republican journal., 1917-05-31
JAPANESE MILLET.
A Substitute for Corn Silage.

The work of one of the large dairymen
of the State is quite closely watched by
the writer His success in supplementing
corn with other plants for silage is mark
ed. The following is as this dairyman
who feeds over so cows views the silage
situation for one situated near the limit
of successful corn growing.
Of the green forages that can be utilized
for filling silos in place of corn by far the
best adapted seems to be Japanese mi]let.
1t has the rankest growth and comes
nearer taking the place of corn in tonnage
than anything that can be surely grown
in the latitude of Maine. The outlook
for good corn year is at the present
time not at all good. There is no posi-
bility of speeding up of corn or of over
coming the handicap of the short season
between frost lines. Something, there
FORE that will take the place of corn in
feeding value and in tonnage is highly de-
sirable, particularly in the present season.
The following points may be set down as
advantages of Japenese millet for corn
substitute for silage:
/. 1t can be planted much later than
corn, even as late as the goth of June,
when the ground will be in much better
shape than it can be for the seasonable
planting of corn.
2. This later planting gives the farmer
an opportunity for using further supply
of accumulated dressing which would not
be possible for corn crop.
3. 1t needs no summer cultivation,
which fact obviously hghtens the farmers
work for the summer.
A. The harvesting of the millet comes
about September 1St, in slack time, Just
prior to the corn cutting, and distributes
the fall work to great advantage.
The following points in ensiloing are to
be guarded:
1. The tramping down of the silage,
especially on the sides and getting it as
firm and tight as possible.
2. To provide as heavy corn pres
sure for the settling of the millet as pos
sible 1t is great advantage to have a
heavy tonnage of corn silage dumped in
on top of the millet in order to get first
class quality of silage from the millet.
3. Millet should be cut before the stems
harden at all, when they have their maxi
mum Succulence.
This dairyman has had considerable ex-
perience in the raising of millet and in
SLIDING both millet and clover and he finds
that the millet has all the feeding value
that good second crop has and that stock
eat it as greedily as they do corn silage.
He further emphasizes the point that it is
much more desirable to ensilo the millet
than to run the risk of making poor
quality of hay of the crop, which is very
| likely to be the case in our usual Septem-
| berS In his ten years experience with
millet there have been only two or three
first quarters of September in which it
was possible to cure a heavy millet crop,
the result being, in the usual season, the
farmer gets musty and exceedingly poor
quality of hay from his millet. If instead
of trying to make dry forage out of this
millet it is moved, raked Immediately,
and dumped into the silo just before the
corn cutting takes place the farmer has
distributed his work easily for the season,
taken advantage of range of crop pos
sibilities and of tonnage values, all OF
which should be kept in mind and appre-
ciated, especially in the season of 1917,
when time, labor and land are at maximum
values.
CHAS. d. WOODS.
Director.