io66 Rural School Leaflet. 



best shape for preserving silage. The deeper the silo the harder the 

 silage is packed and the better it keeps. Many silos have been built 

 in this country of wooden frames lined with thin lumber and building 

 paper, fastened tightly together so that air cannot enter through the 

 -walls. Many are built of upright staves, like those in a water tank, and 

 held together with metal hoops. Some have been built of stone or 

 brick laid in mortar, and recently several have been built of reinforced 

 concrete (a mixture of sand, gravel, and cement with steel rods bedded 

 in the concrete to give it more strength). Every year brings out some 

 new method of building silos to meet the conditions in different parts 

 of our broad country. All silos need to have a good foundation, prefer- 

 ably of stone or concrete. A good many silos have a floor of concrete. 

 To be convenient in use, a silo must have openings, one above another, 

 on the side where the ensilage can be taken out as it is wanted for feed. 

 The size of a silo should be in proportion to the number of animals to 

 be fed from it. 



Ensilage crops. — Although there are several farm crops that can be 

 preserved in the silo, Indian corn is the most widely used for this purpose. 

 The first man to make ensilage from Indian corn was a German sugar 

 manufacturer who was trying to grow varieties of corn imported from 

 the United States. Because he could not ripen these varieties in his 

 country and because he had been successful in making ensilage from 

 sugar beet pulp and leaves, he thought of preserving the Indian corn 

 fodder, ears and all, in his silos. In doing this he was very successful. 

 The first silos built in the United States for preserving green fodder 

 were erected in Michigan in 1875. Other crops which have been pre- 

 served successfully in this way are sorghum, wheat, oats, rye, alfalfa, 

 clovers, and grasses. Some crops can be used mixed with corn fodder 

 for ensilage more successfully than they can be preserved alone. Sun- 

 flowers, soy beans, and alfalfa have been used in this way. It is easier 

 to make good ensilage from Indian com than from any of the other 

 crops named; but sometimes the other crops can be preserved in the 

 silo more economically than they can be dried and preserved as hay. 



The silo furnishes the most economical means of preserving these 

 farm crops, especially where the weather is likely to interfere with their 

 being cured and stored in other ways. Besides this, the quality of suc- 

 culence or juiciness found in the fodder is mostly preserved in the 

 ensilage. Some chemical changes take place in the heating and ferment- 

 ing of the ensilage which, if properly controlled, make the ensilage 

 easily digested and very palatable for the domestic animals. 



In order to pack the com fodder into the silo and drive out the air 

 so that it will keep, it has been found best to use a machine called a 



