702 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
If any ensilage is left after the cattle are turned out to pasture, it 
can be kept until the latter part of the pasture season and if the dry 
weather makes the pasture short it is much better feed and less work 
to feed it than to go out in the field and cut green corn to feed the stock. 
Professor Kennedy says: "When bran sells for $16.00 per ton, timothy 
hay is worth only $2.00 a ton to produce milk, although bran is higher 
than that now. You can buy protein in cotton seed meal almost as cheap 
as that at the present time, or if you have good clover hay I think that 
will answer." 
Ensilage is rich in carbohydrates so you want to feed a small quantity 
of protein feed with it for a balanced ration for milk. It has been said 
that condensed milk factories would not take milk from cows fed ensilage, 
but as far as I can find out it is not the case when the ensilage is good. 
I will read one letter in support of it. 
SILOS AND SILAGE. 
C. W. ADAMS, AMES. IOWA. 
(Prize-winning essay in the Contest held by National Corn Show Associa- 
tion, December, 1908.) 
Corn is the ideal food for cheap milk production. The evolution of the 
silo has taken place in dairying regions where the winter season is long, 
and is the result of trying to counterfeit grass by preserving forage crops 
in a suculent condition. 
The fundamental principle upon which silage making is based is the 
exclusion of air. If this is done the gases arising from fermentation 
seem to preserve the silage by the prevention of fungus and moulds. 
The first silos were pits in the ground, but as it became evident that 
pressure must be had, to exclude air, and that to get this pressure depth 
was required, the silo has gradually come to be built above ground. The 
old type was square, but as the sides sprung out upon pressure allowing 
the corners to become aired and spoil, the corners Vv'ere filled in and 
finally the round type was evolved. 
Modern silos may be divided into four classes. First, stave silos, 
which are usually factory made and are shipped to the farm ready for 
erection. Second, steel silos, which are also factory made and ready for 
erection. Third, carpenter built silos, made on the farm by 'banding and 
sheathing upright studding with layers of thin lumber. Fourth, rein- 
forced concrete, brick, stone or tile silos, built on the farm. The com- 
parative cost varies largely with the locality. 
A number of satisfactory types of carpenter built silos were formerly 
used, but the recent advance in prices of lumber makes their use less 
practicable. The majority of successful silos in use today are factory 
made stave silos bound with steel hoops. In their favor it may be said 
that the cost of erecting is small, they are comparatively cheap and they 
can be moved if necessary. They are made from the following woods, 
the comparative durability of which is in the order named. Redwood, 
cypress, Oregon fir, tamarack or larch, and white and long leaf yellow 
