FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 451 



SILAGE ESSENTIAL AS DAIRY FEED. 



The great question is not what silo to put up, but to build a silo. You 

 may make it of staves, you may make it of panels, you may make it of 

 hollow tile, you may make it of cement blocks, you may make it of con- 

 crete in monolithic form, you may make any kind of silo you like, you 

 are even entitled to dig a pit silo, if you think that is the only kind suited 

 to your needs; but, under any circumstances, build a silo, because upon 

 that class of feed depends the greatest efficiency and the greatest pro- 

 ductive capacity of your dairy herd. It is the economical feed, it is the 

 feed that is best adapted to your conditions, and, therefore, it is a feed 

 you should have for your herd. 



It is not business sense for the farmer to work six, or eight, or ten 

 months in the year on a crop, and then leave 40 per cent of that crop 

 to wither in the field. He cannot afford to harvset 60 per cent and leave 

 the balance as a wasted by-product. The correct system is to use the 

 entire crop, and use it all, to the very best advantage. The watch word 

 of the present era is efficiency, and efficiency means the best use of 

 every agency that comes to hand in developing and completing the work 

 of the year. Silage puts all the corn at the farmer's disposal. It pre- 

 vents this 40 per cent loss, and in this respect it is one of the greatest 

 blessings that modern agricultural research has given to the farmer. The 

 silo is not a modern institution. It is as old as agriculture, but it has 

 never been so successfully developed as at the present time. 



Many a great manufacturing concern has made a large share of its 

 wealth out of the by-products. It remains for the farmers of this country 

 to find in the by-products of the corn crop, which are in the stalks, the 

 profit that is justly theirs. It is an all-the-year-round necessity on every 

 practical dairy farm. 



SOILING CROPS TO SUPPLEMENT IOWA PASTURES. 



BY H. H. KILDEE, 



The pastures upon most Iowa farms do not furnish enough feed for 

 the cattle during the hot, dry months of summer. The problem of supply- 

 ing the necessary feed most economically is important, and may be solved 

 by one or a combination of the following methods: 



1. Better care and management of pastures. 



2. Use of summer silo. 



3. Use of soiling crops. 



Better care and management of pastures is absolutely necessary to 

 secure the best results from our farms. In every neighborhood practical 

 demonstrations may be found that a little care given to a pasture will 

 greatly increase its production of feed for live stock. But this in itself 

 is not enough for dairy farmers or for many beef cattle growers. To 

 secure the greatest possible returns from their farms, they find it to their 

 advantage to keep more cattle than they can properly pasture without the 

 aid of silage or soiling crops. The use of silage or soiling crops upon 



