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plants have grown to a height of more than 3 feet the cultivation should be more 

 distant and shallow, in order to avoid injuring the side roots of the plants. 



Silos. — The main features that are required in a silo are strength to resist the 

 outward pressure of its contents, exclusion of air by the construction of the sides, 

 and a fair depth of holding capacity, in order to permit the ensilage to settle into a 

 compact mass. Sufficient strength of sides can be obtained in most silos by the use 

 of 2 X 10-inch or 2 x 12-inch studs, placed from 18 inches to 2 feet apart. A clay or 

 earthen floor is most economical, and as good as any that can be put in. The inside 

 of the walls of the silo may be finished by a single lining of lumber, nailed to the 

 studs horizontally. The lumber should be tongued and grooved and dressed on the 

 inside. If each alternate board be allowed to extend at the corners, so as to make 

 a lock-joint, that will give additional strength to the structure. The corners of the 

 silo, on the inside, should be filled by the use of a board or plank 10 inches wide, set 

 on end. The triangular space behind it should be filled with sand or sawdust. I con- 

 sider that studs 2 x 10-inch or 2 x 12-inch, with one pl}^ of sound tongued and grooved 

 lumber, nailed horizontally on the inside, are sufficient for an efficient preservation 

 of the ensilage. Additions to that method of construction may be advantageous, in 

 a, few cases, for convenience. If a portion of the ensilage around the sides becomes 

 frozen, that is more an inconvenience than a loss. It should be mixed with the warm 

 ensilage, from the middle of the silo, before it is offered or fed to the cattle. 



Cutting the Corn. — The cutting of fodder corn by hand has been found the 

 most economical of the methods which we have tried. If the crop be allowed to 

 wilt in the fields, until it loses from 15 to 20 per cent of its moisture, a pleasant 

 aromatic odour will be developed, which leaves the ensilage with a more agre cable 

 smell. From an examination which was conducted with two tons of corn, left to wilt 

 in the fields, in small heaps of about twenty-five or thirty stalks each, it was found 

 that, with two days' exposure during bright sunshiny weather, the corn lost 28-5 

 per cent of its weight; and with four days' exposure, 36-8 per cent. After twenty- 

 eight days standing in "stooks " it had lost 52 per cent; and after five months it had 

 lost 58'8 per cent of its original green weight. 



Filling the Silo. — It is advantageous to cut into the silo those varieties of 

 corn which have thick stalks, in lengths of from |- to f of an inch. Cut into such 

 lengths there is no waste, and the stalks and cobs are all eaten up clean by the 

 animals. Provision should be made for a fairly even distribution of the corn in the 

 fiilo, while it is being filled, and for tramping the sides and corners most thoroughly. 

 The weighting of the corn does not appear to be necessary or advantageous. After 

 the silo is filled the surface should be levelled and thoroughly tramped ; and after 

 the lapse of not more than one day it should be covered to a depth of 6 inches with 

 cut straw. If a foot of cut straw be put on top of that a few days later, probably no 

 loss at all from waste ensilage will be found on the opening of the silo for feeding. 

 The feeding should be effected from the top of the ensilage, and a quantity of the 

 exposed ensilage should be raked from the top daily. 



7f— 8^ 



