FILLING THE SILO. 341 



silo after it has first been run through a cutting box, 

 and for reasons as follows: i, Much less labor is 

 required to put it into the silo and to pack it so as 

 to exclude the air. 2, It usually keeps better 

 in the cut form. 3, Much less labor is involved 

 in feeding the silage. 4, A smaller proportion 

 will be rejected by the animals. 5, Meal may 

 be mixed with the cut silage as may be desired. 

 Whenever silage is fed in a large way, it will 

 certainly pay well to run the food through a 

 cutting box before it is stored rather than to 

 store it in the uncut form. 



Where corn, sorghum or the non-saccharine 

 sorghums are to be run through a cutting box when 

 put into the silo, the cutting box chosen should be 

 strong, and when riiuch work is to be done, it should 

 be capacious, that the work may be done rapidly. It 

 may of course be driven by any kind of power not 

 unduly expensive. The tendency now is to prefer 

 engine power to horse power. 



The lengths to which the food should be cut 

 is yet an unsettled point. In fact it will vary to 

 some extent with the crops stored. All things con- 

 sidered, however, short lengths in the food cut are 

 preferable to those longer. They may be packed 

 more tightly and handled more readily when feeding 

 than silage of longer lengths. Those from one-half 

 to three-fourths of an inch, of such hard substances 

 as corn or sorghum stalks, are in favor with many. 

 Intermediate lengths, that is, lengths a little longer 

 than the above, have been objected to because 

 of the soreness of mouth sometimes induced in cattle, 

 from biting on the ends of the cuts rather than on the 



