No. 7. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



197 



HOW LARGE A SILO? 



The same inquirer asks: 



"How large a silo would I need, and how much corn would I have 

 to plant to till it? 1 would have about forty tons of clover hay in 

 addition to silage. Bran is worth from |1U to |14 per ton." 



Two silos are much better than one. One silo, sixteen feet in 

 diameter and twenty-four feet high, will hold sufficient silage to 

 feed thirty cows two hundred days, which will suffice for winter. 

 But there will come the summer drouth and other exigencies, which 

 can not be in any other way so successfully met as with silage. 

 Therefore, a second, but smaller silo should be built for summer, say 

 fourteen feet in diameter and same depth. Eight acres of corn 

 should fill the larger silo, and five acres the smaller one. 



We would recommend for winter use, if your cows are in full 

 flow of milk, as they should be, about as follows: 



DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS. 



Formula for Ration. 



H 



30 lbs. silage 



10 lbs. clover hay, 



4 lbs. bran 



4 lbs. gluten feed, 



Totals 



.21 

 .17 

 .12 



.14 



.64 



Give in addition as much other coarse fodder as cows will eat. 



He asks further: 



"^Vhich would p'ay best? — Eaise the steer calves (I have a Dur- 

 ham bull and native cows), and feed them on skim milk and barley, 

 or have the Jersey or Guernsey, and feed the milk and barley to 

 pigs, and veal the calves?" 



If one proposes to make a business of dairying and wants to keep 

 cows for profit, he ought to set about getting a herd of dairy cows. 

 He cannot get such a herd with any certainty by using a Durham 

 bull, but should have a Guernsey, Holstein or Jersey. We cannot 

 choose among these breeds for other people. Each has merits 

 peculiar to itself. 



