THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 227 



2. The silo contains more feed in a given space than any other recep- 

 tacle. It is evident that five acres of com put into a silo wet will occupy 

 less space than the same area stacked dry. 



3. It utilizes waste products. This year, because of excessive rain- 

 fall, the cornfields became very weedy. Cut the corn with a binder and 

 the weed* go into the shock, but they are not eaten. Pasture the corn- 

 field and the weeds are not eaten. Cut corn and weeds with binder and 

 run the whole thing into the silo and every weed is consumed. The fields 

 of soft corn this year have been a burden to many farmers. It has kept 

 them very much puzzled to know what to do with the crop. It spoils in 

 the shock; will not keep in the crib. They must feed it a load at a time 

 which means some winter corn picking. The man with a silo can save 

 it and rest easy. 



4. Silage produces better results than the same product fed dry. The 

 agricultural chemist says there is no difference in the feeding value of 

 silage and fodder. The highest authority (the animal that eats it) says 

 there is a difference in favor of silage. The silage fed animals show by 

 their sleek coats a better thrift. Silage makes cows give more milk, and 

 makes the steer fatten cheaper than on dry feed. 



5. The silo makes the farmer more independent of weather condi 

 tions than any other method of saving a crop. Weather is the whole 

 thing in harvesting clover for hay, corn for fodder, or in shredding it. 

 Weather cuts quite a figure with these feeds after the harvest is over. 

 Silage can be made in the rain. Weather does not affect it after it is 

 in the silo. It is easier and more agreeable to go into the silo and get 

 feed when the weather is bad than go out and chop shocks out of the 

 snow, or open a stack in the rain. 



6. It is the cheapest kind of harvest, and the cheapest kind of feed. 

 The cost of feed is the cost of production plus the cost of harvest, pius 

 the value of the loss and waste. The cost is about the same whether you 

 make clover into hay or silage. The work of curing and harvesting will 

 about offset the work of running through the cutter. However, the loss 

 in the silo is not equal to the loss in the stack. Up to harvesting, the 

 cost is the same whether the corn is to be siloed or otherwise saved. 

 There is a saving of time in cutting for the silo, for the binder can work- 

 when the dew is on or before, during or after a rain, and nothing spoils, 

 while the corn must be dry if cutting for the shock, and consequently the 

 binder cannot put in full time. The silo takes the corn off the field and 

 you are ready for manuring and plowing. No shocking, no husking, no 

 stacking, no swearing over corn stalks in the manure. 



7. The silo adds to the acreage of the farm without buying more 

 land, and adds to the stock capacity of the same. Anything that will pre- 

 sent a man with a few acres of high-priced land is worthy of some con- 

 sideration. The silo reduces pasture acreage and gives that to the tillable 

 portion of the farm. It can supplement pasture feed all summer long, and 

 more cows can be kept on less land. The same is true in reducing the 

 meadow acreage. An acre of corn makes more feed than an acre of 

 pasture or meadow. 



