Sugar beets would probably keep all right if stored in a silo just as they might if kept in any other receptacle, but it is not necessary to store beets for stock-feeding in this State.  They can be taken from the field, or from piles made under open sheds in which the beets may be put because more convenient for feeding than to take them from the field in the rainy season.  Beets put whole into a silo would not make silage.  For that purpose they would need to be reduced to a pulp, but there is no object in going to the expense of that operation where beets will keep so well in their natural condition and where there is no hard freezing to injure them.  Beet pulp silage is made from beets which are put through a pulping process for the purpose of extraction of the sugar and, therefore, best pulp silage is only made in connection with beet-sugar factories and is a by-product thereof which is proving of large value for feeding purposes.

Feeding Value of Spelt.

What is the food value of spelt?  It is a Russian variety of wheat, and yet, I am informed, it has about the same value as a stock food that barley has.

We have no analysis of spelt at hand.  It is presumably like that of barley, as you suggest, because the spelt has an adhering chaff as barley has.  This fact makes it better for feeding than wheat, not in nutritive content, but because the chaff tends to distribute the starchy material, making it more easily digestible; just as barley and oats are better than ordinary wheat for stock feeding.

Concentrates and Corn Stalks.

Is it necessary to feed mulch cows any hay or concentrated feed in addition to green corn stalks?

It is necessary.  Green corn is an excellent thing for milch cows, but it is a very unbalanced ration and needs alfalfa or something else to balance it up.  Green corn, for example, contains only about one per cent of digestible protein and 11.5 per cent of digestible carbohydrates and 0.4 per cent fat, or a nutritive ratio of about 1 to 12 1/2.  A proper ration would be about 1 to 6 or 7, or less.  To balance this up alfalfa can be fed better than anything else in California, for that is very rich in protein and the cheapest supply of protein that there is.  If you give the cows a good supply of alfalfa hay with the green corn, you will have an ideal combination.

Dry Sorghum Fodder.

Is Egyptian corn fodder good for cows?  I have been told it would dry up the milk.  I have several acres and would like to feed it if it is not harmful.

Dry sorghum fodder is counted about the poorest roughage that one would think of harvesting.  It is much less valuable than Indian corn fodder.  Egyptian corn is one of the non-saccharine sorghums which are valuable both for grain or for green feeding.  We never heard of direct milk-drying effect, though such a result might be expected from feeding such innutritive material, which is also difficult of digestion.  If fed for roughness it should be in connection with concentrated foods like bran or oil meal or with green alfalfa.  No cow can give much milk when the feed is hardly nutritive enough to keep her alive.