22 ADVANTAGES OF THE SILO. 



the siloing system incurred by the fermentation processes 

 taking place in the silo. 



Pasturing cattle is an expensive method of feeding, 

 as far as the use of the land goes, and can only be prac- 

 ticed to advantage where this is cheap. As the land in- 

 creases in value, more stock must be kept on the same 

 area in order to correspondingly increase the profits from 

 the land. The silo here comes in as a material aid, and 

 by its adoption, either alone or in connection with the 

 soiling system, it will be possible to keep at least twice 

 the number of animals on the land that can be done 

 under the more primitive system of pasturing and feeding 

 dry feeds during the winter. The experience of Goffart, "the 

 Father of Modern Silage," on this point is characteristic. 

 On his farm of less than eighty-six acres at Burtin, France, 

 he kept a herd of sixty cattle, besides fattening a num- 

 ber of steers during the winter, and eye-witnesses assure 

 us that he had ample feed on hand to keep one hundred 

 head of cattle the year around. 



We might go on and enumerate many other points 

 in which the siloing process has decidedly the advantage 

 over the method of field-curing fodder or haymaking; but 

 it is hardly necessary. The points given in the preceding 

 will convince any person open to conviction, of the supe- 

 riority of the silo on stock or dairy farms. As we proceed 

 with our discussion we shall have occasion to refer to sev- 

 eral points in favor of silage as compared with dry feed, 

 which have not already been touched upon. We shall now, 

 first of all, however, discuss the Summer Silo; also the 

 wonderful progress of the use of silage in beef production, 

 and of its help in maintaining soil fertility. Afterwards, 

 we will proceed to explain the method of building Silos 

 and then discuss the subject of making and feeding silage. 



