THE SILO. 



425 



The catalog prices named above do not include the carrier or blower, 

 which come extra at about $2 per foot for carrier and $1 per foot for 

 blower. The cutter for blower will cost a little more than for carrier. 

 The price will also vary with the make of machine. The prices are also 

 reduced by a per cent discount, which varies somewhat with the differ- 

 ent firms. When you decide to buy select the size that will best suit your 

 needs and correspond with a few reliable dealers. The discount is often 

 surprising. Occasionally one outfit is purchased by a neighborhood and 

 used for filling a dozen or more silos, and occasionally a rig is owned and 

 worked from place to place, the same as a threshing machine, charging so 

 much per ton or per day, but when the silo is to be filled largely by help 

 on the place, or is to be filled at dififerent times as a catch-all, it is far 

 more satisfactory to estabhsh the cutter, house it in, and keep it always 

 ready for use. The horse-power named was steam power ; if a gasoline 

 engine is used, increase the rated power about one-third. 



Necessary Help. — When the cutter is running it is poor economy to 

 allow it to run empty a part of the time. Better hire more help and keep 

 the thing doing business all the time it is on expense. To keep it run- 

 ning 8 or 10 men will be needed, placed as follows: one engineer, one 

 feeder, one in silo, one in field with team cutting corn, and four to six 

 men, each with a team, to draw corn to the machine. To save useless 

 labor the wagons should be low, a low truck with platform, or better, a 

 suspended flat bed between the fore and rear wheels. This saves a large 

 amount of useless lifting of heavy corn. See figure 17. 



Figure 17. Low down wagon for hauling green corn. 



Cost of Filling. — King, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, 

 studied this problem on a number of farms in Wisconsin and found that 

 on an average it cost 58.6 cents to put one ton of green corn into the 

 silo. Glover of Illinois studied the question in Illinois at a later date, when 

 more improved machinery was being used, and found that the modern 

 machinery enables a man now to do much more than he could 10 or 15 

 years ago. According to his figures, it would cost 40 cents a ton. It is 

 usually considered that 50 cents a ton will cover the cost of filling. Many 

 men, who have had experience in both methods, claim that it is just as 

 cheap, and more satisfactory to make silage, as it is to cut, shock, husk 

 and grind the corn for the cows. 



