Show SILAGE AXD SILOS Bulletin 102 o Geneva N Y station I sta-tion isa popular treatise on silage and silos It summarizes resultsf tests at a number of experiment statons These have all resulted in favor of silage as against cured fodder except at the Utah station In that dry climate fodder losss little by exposure to the weather hence l may be kept out of doors thus saving the expense of housing Corn is the greatest of all silage crops though sorghum is good and clover peas and soja beans make fine silage and a mixture of these with corn very much improves the quality of that slag But no other crop yields so large a crop or can be so universally universalY and so cheaply grown as corn gown crn Heretofore corn for silage has gener ally been cut too young 11 should be allowed to stand until the grain is well glazed and dented and the blades begin to brown Then cut it fine and tramp i into the silo well and there will be much less loss of nutriment than when it is put in green and immature Many 1fany tests with green silage have shown that suc silage when fed possesses 20 percent per-cent less value than before it went into the silo This is about the average loss in curing fodder in the shock Fodder requires three times as much houseroom house-room as ensilage does and ensilage can be put up in wet weather as well as in dry weather Instead of buying fertilizers buy oil meal bran gluten meal etc and feed mixed with the silage and siag apply the resulting re-sulting manure to the farm Such meals are very rich in fertilizing materials ve fertlzing materils k > f and nearly all of these materials are recovered in the manure Such meals being rich > in protein balance the silage I hay is fed with silage it should be clover or peavine hay The Massachusetts station found a mixed silage of corn and soja bean very fine Vermont station made a superior su-perior silage out of oats and vetch also of oats and peas Silage produced more milk at the Ohio station more butter at the Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania station and more mutton at the Michigan station than beets Even when there is a loss of 20 per cent in feeding value of silage it is a cheaper feed than roots The Wisconsin station sta-tion preserved silage at a loss of only 8 per cent of its feeding value The loss1 in curing fodder is never less than 20 per cent pr The Pennsylvania station found silage and cured fodder about equally digestible ble Kansas station grew 100 tons of silage on ten acres and it sustained twentyfive head of cattle 192 daysa result which it isf thought could not be attcine with ten acres of cured fod derUse Use the largest variety of corn that will mature before frost Experiments at the Pennsylvania station show that as corn approaches maturity the quantity quan-tity of nutrients it contains and the digestibility di-gestibility both increase very rapidly The total yield of digestible food by the matured crop was two or three times that of the same crop in the silk and 36 per cent greater than when the ears began to glaze The Minnesota station found that 100 pounds of ensilage from northern and southern and sweet corn all contained about the same feeding value Silage is distinctively a cattle feed but the Kansa station finds i not good for breeding bulls I may be fed in moderation to horses pigs poultry and sheep sheep but sour silage is dangerous to There has been some complaint that silage gives milk a unpleasant flavor This is probably due to pour and decaying decay-ing silages The Kansas station found that if the silage be fed just after milking milk-ing instead of before this disagreeable disagree-able flavor disappears In building a silo the essential thing is to so construct it that air cannot enter en-ter the fermenting silage Silage is canned can-ned corn and is prepared the cor prpa on same principle In canning fruit or corn air is expelled by heat and kept out by sealing the can airtight In preserving preserv-ing silage air is expelled by close tramping and by the heat generated by fermentation and is kept out by airtight walls and a airtight covering cover-ing of hay or dirt which covering generally gen-erally rests upon boards The greater the depth of the silo the greater he weight and pressure and the better the silage keeps Since ensilage cutters have elevators that carry the cut ensilage en-silage up to the top of a thirtyfoot wall as easily a to the top of one twenty feet high thirty feet is the best depth Stone and brick make good silos but they are expensive and in order that the inside surface of the wall may be smooth enough to permit the silage to settle and pack without leaving air holes they must be cemented and the acids of the silage destroy this cement coating every year or two Wooden silos are cheapest and best and round ones are better and more economical than square ones It is difficult dif-ficult to pack Hag into corners so as t exclude air In warm climates 2x4 studding will do but where hard freezing freez-ing may be expected use 2x6 8 or 10 In all cases sheath the outside and then cover with tarred paper and weather board over this Line the inside in-side with tongue and groove matched lumber two layers with tarred paper between running the inside boanjs up and down This bulletin gives minute directions for locating fill locatng building preserving fl ing and emptying the silo and gives several illustrations of plans A round silo twenty feet in diameter and thirty feet deep holds 180 tons and costs 300 in New York A square silo of same capacity costs 425 In dilating upon the advantage of the sdlo in the diary L S Hardin says in Home and Farm From every quarter quar-ter of the country attention is now very properly being called to the extreme ex-treme low price o dairy goods and i the absolute necessity for strict economy econ-omy in procuring feed for the cows in order that some respectable margin for profit may be left to the dairyman In this connection strong emphasis must be laid upon that greatest of modern discoveries in feeding cows the silo Sofa So-fa as feed value and of fed cheapness production pro-duction are concerned the silo has long since passed the experimental stage All authorities worth considering have proven by every test that suggests a fair trial that good ensilage is far and away the best food and cheapest to produce that has yet been used in feeding feed-ing cows for the production of good milk The average farmer can easily make and keep a fine article of ensilage if he will only follow with reasonable strictness a few simple instructions that can easily and cheaply be procured pro-cured This feed is not only admirable for winter use but is rapidly taking the place of summer pasture with no face ugly droughts staring the farmer in the |