SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 727 



ESSENTIALS OF SILO FILLING. 



If silage is to keep well it must settle evenly. To this end the leaves 

 and the heavier parts of tho corn must be kept thoroughly mixed and 

 evenly distributed in the silo. Owing to the great lateral pressure of 

 rilage, friction with the sides of the silo has a tendency to make the 

 silage less compact at the edge, and for this reason it should be kept 

 thoroughly tramped next the side. Every time three or four inches of cut 

 material is added to the silo it should be tramped thoroughly around the 

 edge, taking short steps and packing the silage as much as possible next 

 the wall. These precautions must be observed during filling to obtain 

 perfect silage. 



If the corn is so ripe that none having green leaves at the bottom 

 of the stalk can be obtained to finish the last four or five feet at the 

 top of the silo, water should be run into the carrier and the corn well 

 soaked. If the corn is green, only enough water need be used to soak 

 the upper six inches of silage. 



Many different forms of covering for silage have been advocated, 

 but it is usually found more practical to finish with the same material 

 as that with which the silo is filled. Frequently a saving can be maae 

 by snapping off the ears and using the stalks alone, or by running enough 

 straw, chaff, or weeds through the cutter to cover the silage from four 

 to six inches deep. If pressure is available, water can be run into the 

 carrier to saturate this material. The top must be thoroughly soaked 

 once and the whole surface well tramped every day for a week to 

 exclude the air as much as possible. This tramping should be especially 

 well done around the sides, so that the air cannot gain acess next 

 the wall. The object of wetting the surface is to obtain as quickly as 

 possible a thin layer of thoroughly rotted silage, which will seal the top, 

 thus excluding the air and preserving the silage below. 



If water is not added to the top, the heat dries out the silage, which 

 may then "fire fang'" to considerable depth, entailing a great loss. 



COST OF FILLING... 



Tbat data on the cost of filling silos, from which the Table 2 has 

 been prepared, were secured by representatives of the Experiment Sta- 

 tion, who went to diffei'ent parts of the state when men were filling silos 

 and kept accurate records of the work in progress. 



In these records the time work began in the morning and stopped at 

 night was noted, allowance being made for whatever time was taken at 

 noon. With the exception of a few cases on dairy farms, where some 

 of the men quit early to milk, no allowance was made for time lost 

 after the cutter started and men and teams were ready for work, a full 

 day being counted unless for some reason all work stopped and men 

 and teams were at liberty to leave. 



To reduce the cost of filling the different silos to a like basis, the- 

 charge made in these records for each of the various operations was 

 uniform, and as near as possible to the average price paid. The labor 

 of the men was charged at $1.25 and of the teams at $1.00 each for a 



