266 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



kind to be fed, the entire amount of silage which will be consumed daily 

 may be ascertained. The maximum diameter which the silo should have 

 may then be determined from the following : Two inches in depth of or- 

 dinary corn silage weighs about 5 Ibs. per surface square foot near the 

 top of the silo and 7 Ibs. near the bottom, averaging about 6.5 Ibs. in a silo 

 filled to a depth of 30 feet. To use 2 inches daily from the surface, ap- 

 proximately the following amounts must be fed from silos of various 

 diameters : Diameter 10 feet, 510 Ibs. silage ; 11 feet, 615 Ibs. ; 12 feet, 735 

 Ibs. ; 14 feet, 1,000 Ibs. ; 16 feet, 1,305 Ibs. ; 18 feet, 1,655 Ibs. ; 20 feet, 

 2,045 Ibs. ; 22 feet, 2,470 Ibs. ; 24 feet, 2,940 Ibs. ; 26 feet, 3,450 Ibs. In cold 

 weather and when the silage is well packed, a somewhat smaller amount 

 may be removed daily. 



When the minimum diameter which the silo should have has thus been 

 determined, the total amount of silage required for the desired feeding 

 period may be computed and the dimensions for a silo of this capacity 

 found by referring to the table in the preceding article. It should be borne 

 in mind that silage in a relatively deep silo keeps better than in a shallow 

 one, and that a deep silo is the most economical to construct. King 25 

 found that a silo 36 ft. in depth will store 5 times as much feed as one 

 12 ft. deep, due to the greater compactness of the stored mass. Many 

 silos are now built 40 ft. or even more in depth. A silo 20 ft. in diameter 

 will hold 4 times as much as one having half that diameter, while it costs 

 but twice as much to build. Gurler 26 advises against silos over 25 ft. in 

 diameter on account of the increased labor involved in removing the silage. 



II. SOILAGE 



Soilage means supplying forage fresh from the field to animals in 

 confinement. It was first brought to public attention in this country 

 by Josiah Quincy, whose admirable essays, printed in the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Journal in 1820, were later gathered into a booklet entitled 

 "The Soiling of Cattle, " long since out of print. Soilage, one of the 

 most intensive forms of husbandry, is especially helpful where it is de- 

 sired to concentrate labor and capital in maintaining farm animals on a 

 relatively small area of land. 



418. Advantages and disadvantages of soilage. Compared with allow- 

 ing animals to gather their food by grazing, soiling has the following 

 advantages: 1. With all crops, even grasses, which soon spring up 

 again when grazed, a larger yield is secured by allowing the plants nearly 

 to mature before harvesting than by pasturing them. 27 (310) 2. With a 

 properly planned succession of soiling crops an abundance of palatable 

 feed may usually be supplied thruout the season, so that the. production 

 of the animals will not decline if pastures become parched in midsummer. 

 3. None of the forage is wasted thru being tramped down by the animals 

 or fouled with manure. 4. Less fencing is required. 



^Physics of Agriculture. "Largely from Quincy, The Soiling of Cattle. 



Farm Dairy. 



