THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 653 



The physiological condition of the animal may be such that this di- 

 gested matter may in one case be utilized to far better advantage than in 

 the other. The problem then, is not one of efficiency of food so much as 

 efficiency of machine and it is this animal efficiency which succulent or 

 watery food increases. Conveniences and cheapness of storing is a point 

 in favor of the silo. A corn crop having been produced, must in some way 

 be preserved for winter feeding. Stooking the entire crop as soon as the 

 ears are well glazed, and allowing it to dry for a month or more, husking 

 the ears, mowing away the stalks, shelling and grinding on the farm, or 

 taking to and from the mill and expense of grinding, all bear too heavily 

 on the farmer. To reduce the cost of production is the great problem in 

 agricultural progress, and it must be done by reducing the amount of 

 human labor which enters into farm products. A system of stooking corn 

 in large stooks and leaving them on the field until wanted for feeding 

 purposes, has been and is practiced to some extent; it saves labor, but 

 wastes the crop and is inconvenien in many ways. Curing the crop and 

 storing is practically impossible on a large scale, since the amount of water 

 to be dried out is very great, and the weather frequently unfavorabe; in a 

 small way it may be practical, but the disadvantages more than offset the 

 advantages. The silo, while not an ideal storage vault, does combine more 

 good points and less bad ones than any method yet devised, for the follow- 

 ing reasons: 



The farmer who has a silo is about as independent of the weather as 

 any man can be. Heavy rain, it is true, will prevent the storage of en- 

 silage, but aside from that nothing interrupts this kind of harvesting; 

 light rains and showers, while making the work disagreeable, does not put 

 a stop to it, and when once in the silo, all danger of imperfect curing which 

 so often injures the crop harvested in the old way, is past. The season is 

 practically lengthened from two to three weeks, since it is not desirable 

 to have the corn for the silo much past the dent stage, hence a variety may 

 be planted for this purpose which stands no show of ripening even one 

 year in ten, and later varieties of corn are of larger growth and produce 

 more actual food per acre. 



This gain is very important in our state. Again, if from unfavorable 

 weather in May, planting is delayed, as already stated, until the first days 

 of June, there is very little risk connected with the crop for the silo, where 

 a crop for husking would be almost certain to be cut off by the fall frosts. 

 The early date at which the land is cleared makes it possible to seed to 

 rye or other winter grain. The cost of harvesting provided the crop if 

 planted within reasonable distance of the silo, is reduced to a low point. 

 Our silo was filled the past season in 11 days, including chores which in- 

 volved milking 27 cows, caring for 10 horses and 50 hogs. Probably not ten 

 days of actual labor was expended with four men and a boy ten years old to 

 drive corn wagon and three teams. Capacity 150 tons; cost of filling about 

 75 cents per ton. 



I wish to give you the testimony of Jas. M. Turner, of the great Spring- 

 dale Farm. He says: "I am keeping 300 cows for dairy purposes, besides 

 my herd of Herefords and Short-horns, and every animal was given during 



