48 



The silo should be so located that the feeding from it can be done 

 with the least labor. 



A silo larger in superficial area than 30 by 15 feet is not recommended. 

 If larger it would be well to divide it by one or more cross partitions. 

 With a good quality of ensilage for herds, made up of large and small 

 animals, 1 cubic foot j^er head per day is recommended as a safe basis 

 for an estimate of the size. 



Directions are given for the construction of a silo and illustrated by 

 a cut. The best and cheapest material for the floor is said to be com- 

 mon clay. The cost of construction in Kansas will be about $2 per tou 

 of contents. 



Silage materials. — The coarse-growing fodder plants, like corn and sorghnm, are sure, 

 in Kansas and generally throughout the West, to he the principal, if not only, silage 

 crops. » * * The common dent varieties of corn and the medium-growing saccha- 

 rine and non-saccharine sorghums are all excellent silage materials. We are strongly 

 of the opiniou that in time it will be demonstrated that sorghnm is greatly superior 

 to corn as a silage material. We can recommend Late Orange, Goose Neck, and par- 

 ticularly Golden Rod, as being especially valuable for silaging. The sorghums have 

 this great advantage over corn: they are less liable to damage by insects, and they 

 remain green far into the fall, usually until cut by frosts, so that the work of filling 

 the silo may be carried on long after the corn plant has ripened its crop and the stalks 

 have become worthless. 



Growing the silage crop. — So far as the corn crop is concerned the tendency in recent 

 years has been strongly in the direction of thinner planting for silage. * * » 



We plant ensilage corn in drills 3^ feet apart, with plants occnpying in the rows 8 

 to 12 inches of space. With sorghum designed for the silo we shonld plant in drills 

 3^ feet apart, and grow individnal plants in the rows at intervals of C to 10 inches. 

 Upon -good soil and with fair treatment corn raised as above will yield 12 to 16 tona 

 of silage per acre, while the yield of sorghum will often reach 20 tons. 



Harvesting the crop. — The tendency has in recent years been markedly towards har- 

 vesting corn designed for the silo at an advanced stage of ripeness. 



In Kansas it will not be safe to follow Eastern practices in this respect. Here the 

 intense heats and other special climatic iuiiuences push the corn crop, when once on the 

 down grade towards ripeness, at a constantly accelerating speed, so that often only a 

 few hours separate the grain which is only "glazed," and that which is ripe to flinti- 

 ness, and dead and dry in leaf, stem, and seed. Moreover, after the corn plant begins 

 to dry up and " fire," the winds act upon the blades and tender parts of the plant 

 most wastefnlly. 



The simplest, and on most accounts best, method of harvesting corn for the silo is 

 the common plan of cutting the corn with the corn-knife and gathering it in armfuls, 

 carryiLj, each armful as fast as cut directly to thg wagon rack. 



Filling and emptying the silo. — For practical men this fact remains : The 

 filling may be slow or rapid as is most convenient, but after the silo has 

 been sealed up, it should not be disturbed until the silage is wanted for 

 feeding. It is preferable to feed from the top so that more or less of the 

 entire surface can be fed every day. As ensilage moulds quite rapidly, 

 exposure to the atmosphere for a number of days may result in consider- 

 able damage. 



Station experiments with silage, 1888-89. — The results of experiments 

 with 115 tons of silage are clearly and concisely summarized thus : 



Eight and one-half acres of corn g.ave 98.8 tons of silage. 



Eiglit and one-half acres of corn gave an average yield of 11.83 tons per acre. 



