The Winslow mail., 1921-02-18
ENS|LACE PERTINENT TO
LOCAL CONDITIONS

made some sales, and a brother of
DR.. T. w. Crump of the U. S. Bureau
of Animal Industry, is in receipt of
a letter through his brother from A.
L. Hacker, one of the best known
ensilage authorities in the country.
The letter is Of such an interesting
nature and SO pertinent to local con-
ditions that the Mail takes pleasure
in presenting 1t to its readers. 1t Is
particularly interesting to know that
in this country where the sunflower
grows wild and is generally consider
ed of no value, we have been over
looking product Of our soils that
has more nourishment that age
known corn.
Corn is king of silage plants on
account of it's high yield and univer-
sal use in the stock-growing country,
but there are many other plants
which can be made as equally as
well into good silage.
The sorghums thrive in many of
the western and southern states, and
have proven not only drought-resist-
ing, but also high yielding crops; of
these perhaps kaffir corn is the most
valuable. A feeding test at the
Kansas experiment station found it
the equal of Indian corn. Kaffir corn
makes excellent silage for all kinds
of livestock and it's drought-resisting
qualities make it a dependable crop.
Milo maize, sorghum, feterita and
Sudan grass are also members of the
sorghum family, which are very val
liable as silage plants, being drought
resisting and yielding high tonnage
per acre.
Root crops such as sugar beets,
mangels, rutabages and turnips, can
also be sliced with good success.
Beet pulp as produced from the
sugar factories, has been used for
silage, and in many parts of the
country have become staple forage
for farm animals. Where beets are
free from dirt, the beet plant both
ltop and root can be successfully cut
Tup and put into the silo and will
come out as excellent silage
In sugar-beet growing sections, the
silo should be used to save the large
crop of beet tops, which is produced
each year. These tops make splen-
did food, especially for milk-produc-
ing cattle, and can be equally well
fed to fattening and growing stock.
The much despised Russian thistle
of the northwest and west has been
proven to make good silage. 1t will
grow when practically nothing else
will survive in long drought seasons.
When cut while still green and put
into the silo, it undergoes fermenta-
tion and comes out as excellent
silage, relished by all farm animals.
Sun flowers have also proven to be
good silage plants and big yielders.
At the Montana experiment station
they were successfully tested out
during the year 1918. They have the
advantage of very high yield; often
running as high as 80 tons per acre.
The silage is relished by livestock
and has high feeding value, nearly
iequal to corn. In many of the west
ern states, wild sunflowers are
noxious weed and grow in the corn
field with such luxuriance that they
sometimes get the start of the corn
and will make up one-half of the crop.
l have seen corn and wild 5sunflowers
harvested where the sunf1owers COM
posed two-thirds of the tonnage. The
silage produced was not only relished
by the stock, but also proved high in
food nutriments.
Many of the weeds, such as pig
weed, pigeon grass and bind weed,
will also make fairly good silage and
for this reason corn crop which has
been taken by weeds can be profit
ably and successfully harvested as
silage. AS the heat moisture produced
in the process of fermentation will
destroy all weed seeds, there is no
danger of making the ground foul
by putting weeds in the silo.
Cane tops have been successfully
sliced in the southern states and in
the Hawaiian islands. AS the tops
are not of value in sugar-making,
they can be successfully be put into
the silo and turned to great value in
feeding livestock. The silo will yet
come into it's proper use.
In this reconstruction period when
the demand Is so great for stock and
stock products, all forage plants
should be put to their most valuable
use. Many of the hay crops, such as
clover, alfalfa, timothy, millet. oats,
peas and soy-beans in wet seasons
when hay making is difficult, can be
proftably sliced and in this way, will
not only be saved, but turned to a
valuable end. Practically all our
grass and grain crops can be made
into silage.
Wheat, rye, spelts, barley and pea
nut vines will make fairly good
|silage. In the high plateaus of the
west and southwest, where peas and
Mexican peas produce large yields,
the silo can be used to store these
crops and put them in such shape
that they can be fed throughout the
Iyear or even carried for two or three
Years.
The silo has proven itself the most
valuable equipment on the stock farm
and without it, stock farmer is
Handicapped and Is not making the