CHAPTER VIII 



The Silo, Silage and Soiling Crops 



The silo does for live stock what fruit cans and 

 fruit jars do for men. One knows a tomato will 

 quickly decay if not put in the fruit jar where it 

 can be sealed so as to prevent the entrance of bac- 

 teria. The silo is a large pit that holds cut-up 

 corn or other forage and keeps it succulent and 

 prevents the maturity of the plant cells. 



The object of the silo is to keep the forage as 

 near the green state as possible. To this fact lies 

 the noted value of silage. As we like during win- 

 ter an apple that has been stored away in the 

 cellar in preference to a dried one, so live stock 

 relish, in the same degree, the corn plant if kept 

 as nearly in the green state as possible. No matter 

 how nutritive a feeding stuff is, if the animal does 

 not like it, it usually is a failure as a milk or meat 

 producer. Of course, no one claims that silage 

 contains greater feeding value than the cured 

 product. A silo has nothing about it to make more 

 protein or carbohydrates or fat. But the juice is 

 there, the flavor is there, as is also the effect of 

 freshness and greenness. 



ECONOMY IN SILAGE 



There is great economy in silage in the fact 

 that a larger part of the product is eaten. If the 

 dry corn plant is fed, for instance, the ear and leaves 

 are the only parts consumed. Fully half the feed- 



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