504 BOARD OF AGKICUI/rURE. 



value. The system of siloing has given us the use of the whole crop. 

 There is. by this method, practically no waste. The whole of the plant 

 is made into feed— the ears, the husks, the leaves and the stalks all yo to 

 make a better ration than can be oI)tained by any other treatment. There 

 is no part of the plant left in the field to be acted upon by the weather, 

 thereby making it of less value in the feed lot. The silo in this way com- 

 pletes a saving of nearly one-half of the entire value of the corn crop. 

 Forty per cent, of the feeding value of corn is found in the husks, leaves 

 and stalks, and upon many farms we find that these parts of the plant 

 are largely, if not entirely, wasted. The grain alone is saved and tlic 

 rest left standing in the field only to be Ijroken down and plowed under 

 the following spring. Can this kind of slovenly and careless management 

 even be termed a distant relative of economy? A loss of 40 per cent, of 

 a crop can never lead to very extensive profits. But some will say: ^Ye 

 have no use for the fodder and that is the best and easiest Avay to get 

 rid of it. It acts as a fertilizer to the soil. Then we answer: If you 

 have no use for the crop then you should certainly have a better iise for 

 the land and the lal)or placed upon it. It is indeed a poor policy to raise 

 corn fodder simply for fertilizer. There are any number of cheaper and 

 better forms of plant food. The day is coming when the Avasting of even 

 10 or 15 per cent, of the value of a farm crop will turn profit inio loss, 

 success into failure. 



The method of field curing fodder and its use by shredding or cutting 

 is a step in the right direction, but that system is also attended with great 

 loss, the total per cent, only being reduced to about one-half that sus- 

 tained in the al)Ove practice. With the best of care, corn, shocked, huslced 

 and fed from the held will lose 20 per cent, or more of its real value, and 

 in case of the fodder alone it will reach from 30 to GO per cent. By the 

 use of the silo the losses of nutrients need not exceed 8 to 10 per cent., 

 and may even be I'cduced to a minimum of 5 per cent. "Where the silo is 

 made a storehouse for the corn crop the land is left in the best possible 

 condition, and in good season, for some fall crop; the harvest is finished 

 during good weather and before the coming of frost; the crop takes up 

 much less room in storage and is in shape to feed at one-fourth the cost 

 of whole fodder. These may be minor points of advantage, but they 

 stand in favor of the silo. 



In conclusion, I would say that every farm needs a silo, and that the 

 small landowner is benefited by its use as well as the more extensive 

 farmer. As a matter of economy the iutensihed farm demands it. It is 

 more stock that you want, not more land, and the silo will help you to 

 get it. After six years of personal experience with the use of a silo upon 

 a Michigan farm we have yet to note a single year in which that insti- 

 tution has not many times saved its original cost. It has enabled us to 

 increase the earnings of the farm from 50 to 100 per cent, and we could 

 not afford to do without it. 



