FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 461 



SILOS AND SILAGE. 



Jas. F. dark & Son, Before the Monroe County Farmers' Institute. 



Silos and silage are not a new subject, having been in existance a great 

 many years. Although not much used in this locality, therefore to some the 

 matter may appear entirely new. As we understand it the silo originally 

 meant a pit in the ground into which green feed was put to preserve it 

 indefinitely which was called ensilage, the principle involved was that of 

 hermetically sealing it for a close fitting follower was made to put on top of 

 the contents in the silo, and an immense weight of earth or stone put on top to 

 weight it down. Modern silos are built entirely upon a different plan. 

 They are mostly built on top of the ground, and of round construction. The 

 object always being to make it air tight, also the weight on top has been 

 discarded, it having beem found that the silage would seal itself with only a 

 slight waste. 



Corn, cane, clover, peas, sorg, beans, alfalfa, millet, in fact most of the 

 green forage plants may be preserved in this way, always preferable to be 

 first run through a feed cutter. 



A very important matter and one that every one must settle for himself, 

 is who needs and who does not need a silo, but a few suggestions along this 

 line may not come amiss. It is safe to say that high-priced land, intense 

 farming and the silo goes hand in hand. The man who has more grass and 

 mare pasture, more hay than he can use, needs no silo, what he needs is 

 more cattle or horses to eat that feed. Our experiment stations claim that 

 there are a least 40 per cent of the nutritive value in the stocks of our corn 

 crop. The man who cuts and shocks his corn, hauls and shreds his fodder 

 has plenty of work and expense, lots of fun. We know by experience. 

 True, he saves a great expense, a part of this 40 per cent nutrition. But for 

 the man who has got no further along than to shock his corn off, leaving 

 his fodder standing in the field, practically a total loss. A harbor for insects, 

 a nuisance and offense to be got out of the way for next year's crop, he is 

 only waisting his time to even think about a silo. He needs to learn to save 

 his forage crop and needs more stock to eat it. The rich man might profit 

 by the silo but it is with the poor man where the silo may be seen at its best, 

 those who have only a small farm, grass and pasture scarce, can now with 

 the aid of the silo feed and care for more stock than by any other process in 

 the known world. Silos are constructed now mainly of three kinds of 

 material, wood, cement and stone, there are many variations of patterns in 

 each, also in price, from a few dollars away into many hundreds of dollars. 

 A few figures may interest some. A hundred ton silo can be made to cost 

 one hundred to five hundred dollars, owing to construction and material 

 used; will take about ten acres of good corn to fill it, and will take about 

 fifty dollars worth of labor to put it in silo, with a small ration of hay will 

 winter forty head of cattle, with the silo located close to the barn stock and 

 feed under all shelter, all safe from rats and mice, no freezing around to 

 dig the fodder and feed out of the snow. The advantage that you can cut 

 and save in the green state any and all forage stuff you may have at any 

 time, put it right in and continue to feed out of it right along or save it to 



