25 



able to humid climates. Wherever the rainfall amounts to more than 

 25 or 30 inches, or where the air is moist through a large i)art of the 

 year, silos will have to be built. The manufacture of stack silage 

 opens great possibilities and will enable stockmen to increase the num- 

 ber of cattle upon the range. If palings are not available for conlining 

 the silage and making the sides perpendicular, the stack may be 

 built up in the same way as a haystack. At the close of the operation, 

 after the forage is well settled and compacted, the looser outside por- 

 tions may be trimmed off perpendicular with a hay knife and piled on 

 top of the stack as a thatch. 



Corn can not be depended on as a forage plant in semiarid regions. 

 The best crops, and those which seldom fail, are sorghum, milo maize, 

 Kafir corn, and Johnson grass, the latter for the richer bottom lands. 

 Of the first three forage crops, from 10 to 20 tons of the green forage 

 may be secured per acre, and at least two cuttings, from 4 to 8 tons 

 each, of the Johnson grass. Two crops of sorghum may often be grown 

 on the same land in one season. Fodder made from the sorghums is 

 rather difficult to cure, or, to speak more properly, is difticult to handle 

 after curing, on account of its bulk and the harshness of the leaves and 

 stalks. Moreover, in the dry climate of the Southwest much of the best 

 part of the fodder and leaves is lost in the process of handling, because 

 becoming so dry and brittle. The stalks are also tougher than corn- 

 stalks, and there is more waste in feeding. 



In the case of Johnson grass there are grave objections to its use for 

 hay on a large scale, because of its weedy character when introduced 

 into farm lands. The territory where Johnson grass is the most valu- 

 able hay grass, comprises the red prairie region, which includes the 

 headwaters of the principal streams that in their lower courses flow 

 through the rich farming lauds of eastern and southern Texas. The 

 seeds of this grass are liable to be washed down from the headwaters 

 in time of flood, inoculating new fields with this, to the cotton farmer, 

 undesirable pest. If the Johnson grass is tnrned into stack silage 

 instead of being made into hay, the danger of spreading a bad weed 

 will be obviated, because the germinating power of whatever seeds may 

 be in the stack will be destroyed by the heat generated in the course of 

 fermentation. 



The principle of stack silage is not by any means a new one. The 

 methods of curing clover and alfalfa in cocks are practically the same, as 

 are also those of curing green corn and sorghum in shocks. In such 

 cases fermentation of the ])artially wilted substance takes place, the 

 difference being that the fodder in shocks ferments at a much lower tem- 

 perature than in stacks. Thus silage can be made at very much less 

 expense than hay. Enough has been done by stockmen and feeders to 

 show that stack silage is not an experiment, but is entirely practical. 

 It is probable that much may be added to our knowledge, especially in 

 regard to such details as the best height and width of the stacks and 



