FEEDING SILAGE. 351 



at the top, and that in all instances the silage shall 

 be fed from the top downwards. When silos were 

 first introduced into America, the egregious mistake 

 was made of opening them at or near the bottom. 

 When thus opened the air is admitted so as to 

 penetrate upwards more or less into the mass, 

 and thus hasten its decay. Much of the silage 

 above falls down from time to time and in such 

 a loose condition it at once begins to spoil. It 

 is necessary therefore, under all circumstances, to 

 feed from the top downwards, but it is not abso- 

 lutely necessary to feed from the whole surface 

 of the silo at once. A section only of the 

 mass of silage may be fed from until it is all 

 gone, but when silage is thus fed in sections from 

 the top to the bottom, there is more loss in silage than 

 when it is fed from the entire surface, except 

 when the size of the silo is too great for the number 

 of animals that are being fed from it. This method 

 of feeding silage therefore is only justifiable, 

 when the quantity to be fed at one time is too 

 small to admit of feeding from the whole sur- 

 face without harm to the exposed portion of the 

 silage. 



No more of the product on the surface should be 

 loosened up at one time than is wanted for immediate 

 feeding, as when thus loosened and not soon fed, the 

 quality of the food deteriorates. But when feeding 

 from the whole surface of the silo it may be necessary 

 to remove the silage from only a portion of the sur- 

 face when providing food to give the stock but one 

 meal. Another part may be removed to furnish the 

 next meal. 



