348 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



the winter climate is mild, it is at least questionable 

 as to whether it ought to be introduced into locali- 

 ties where green crops can be cured in the dry form 

 without much hazard. When the cold in winter is 

 severe, the frost would penetrate more or less into 

 the exposed surfaces and bind them together so as to 

 interfere with handling the food at such times. The 

 work of stacking the food in the green condition is 

 also more or less laborious; nor is the green food 

 when thus cured as easily handled as dry food. The 

 possibility however of curing food thus is not to be 

 called in question. Thus far, therefore, the way is 

 prepared for those who care to do so, to follow such 

 a system. 



The method of preserving food under cover in 

 the green form and yet not in a silo, has met with 

 some favor in the United States, but only in limited 

 areas. When thus preserved, it has been in mows 

 or sheds, and tramped down during the filling pro- 

 cess. Green clover has thus been preserved in some 

 of the northern states. In the central and southern 

 states cowpeas and soy beans have also been stored 

 thus with success. And more recently reports have 

 appeared in which it is claimed that sorghum may 

 similarly be preserved. 



That such crops as clover, cowpeas and soy 

 beans may thus be preserved cannot be called in ques- 

 tion and yet there is an element of hazard about their 

 preservation by this method that should lead the 

 unskilled in such work to refrain from undertaking 

 it, until they have first made themselves familiar 

 with the conditions that govern the successful curing 

 of those crops in the green form in the mow. The 



