226 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PART VI. 



FARM CROPS AND LIVE STOCK. 



A. THE SILO. 



THE SILO AND THE BENEFITS TO BE DERIVED FROM THE USE 



OF SILAGE. 



Alson Secor, Forest City. Iowa. 



The silo is the most economical building a farmer on high priced 

 land can build. It has long been regarded as a luxury for the well-to- 

 do dairyman, but in reality it is the poor man's necessity. If the "well 

 off" dairyman cannot afford to be without the silo, how much less can the 

 man of small means. The silo is no fad or new fangled thing. It is 

 true that very few farmers have one, many never saw one, and no small 

 number ever heard of such a thing. The original method of construc- 

 tion made them so costly that few could afford a silo. That is not so 

 now since the introduction of the stave silo. Most anyone can afford 

 a silo just as well as he can a corn crib and granary. By its use he can 

 soon save enough to pay for it. Wherever a good silo goes up it stays 

 up. No one has reported having had a good silo and discontinued its 

 use because it was unprofitable. In most cases the number of silos on 

 the farm keeps increasing. This speaks volumes. 



What benefits are to be derived from their use? 



I. The silo saves the whole crop of whatever goes into it. There is 

 a small percentage of loss but it is not so great as from the use of any 

 other method of preserving crops. It is well known that in saving corn 

 fodder there is a considerable loss because the dry leaves break off and 

 blow away; the fodder spoils more or less in the shock; the cattle do not 

 eat all the stalk; and if shreded there is liability of further loss in the 

 stack unless ine day of shredding was just right. 



Take the clover, pea or bean crops generally made into hay. There 

 is a loss of the best part (the leaves) in curing, with great possibility of 

 loss in the stack from bad weather, spontaneous combustion, mould, mice 

 and worms. Loss in feeding for stock do not like to eat the coarse stems 

 Put these crops in the silo and everything is saved regardless of weather 

 and everything is eaten by every kind of animal. 



