418 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



headed man. He advocates keeping manure under cover, and his horses in 

 box stalls. 



My opinion is in favor of hauling manure as soon as possible when it is 

 made, and spreading it as hauled. We haul a wagon load every morning and 

 never have a manure pile. 



It seems to me wise to buy commercial foods rather than commercial fer- 

 tilizers, and this is much more profitable than raising wheat. 



SILO AND ENSILAGE. 



PROP. A- J. COOK. 



Report of a Lecture at the Centerville Institute, February 19, 1889. 



I have great faith in ensilage as an aid in solving the problem of main- 

 taining the fertility of our farms. It is too bad for us to rest content 

 with crops of 12 to 14 bushels of wheat per acre. In New York good 

 farmers are dissatisfied with less than 25 to 30 bushels. These results they 

 do not secure by the use of commercial fertilizers, saying that they are too 

 costly to be used with profit, and that it is barn-yard manure alone to which 

 we must look for salvation. To increase our manure pile we must keep 

 more stock, and it is here that- the silo comes to our rescue by enabling us 

 to feed fifty per cent more live stock from a given acreage than we were 

 able to do with dry feed. Hiram Smith, of Wisconsin, maintains that with 

 ensilage he can feed double the number of animals that he can without it. 



It is said that seeing is believing. I have a neighbor who is possessed of 

 an inordinate dread of getting into debt, and yet, after seeing my silo, he 

 said that he was determined to build one for himself at once, even if he had 

 to go in debt for it. 



A silo is nothing more nor less than a frost-proof, air-tight box, dry at the 

 bottom. You can build it in your barn to advantage if you can spare the 

 room for it there. My silo is 20 feet high. I would like 25 feet high 

 better. Locate it wherever it will be most convenient to the mangers for 

 feeding. The level of the bottom of the silo should be about 18 inches 

 below the level of the ground, and the trenches for the outside walls should 

 be enough lower than this to be safely below frost. This will usually vary 

 from 1 to 2 feet, according to the soil and drainage. 



This trench should be 18 inches across and filled with stones up to the 

 level of the bottom of the silo. From there to the surface of the ground 

 build, even with the outside line of the trench, an 8-inch wall and on the 

 10-inch ledge thus left place flatwise two 2x10 plank to which to toenail 

 the studding. This should also be of 2x10 plank placed 16 inches between 

 centres. The object of this arrangement is to provide a firm backing for 

 the bottom of the studs to enable them to withstand the outward pressure, 

 and to insure this it will be well to tamp the soil firmly against the founda- 

 tion wall. 



Against the studding on the outside put a layer of building paper and 

 one thickness of boards running horizontally, and on the inside put grooved 

 board-lath, and onto this a coat of cement like a cistern lining. This will 

 cost about 10 cents per square yard for mason labor, besides tender and 

 material. 



