24 THE SUMMER SILO. 



supplying their needs as above indicated for the herd, is 

 insignificant compared with the importance of their unim- 

 paired growth." 



There are many intelligent farmers who are providing 

 a succession of fresh soiling crops and using them to 

 great advantage in helping out short pastures. "But," 

 says Professor Frazer of the Illinois Station, "there is 

 necessarily much labor attached to preparing the ground, 

 planting, raising, and harvesting the common crops used 

 for this purpose. There is usually much loss in being 

 obliged to feed these crops before they are mature and 

 after they are overripe. And for the farmer who can 

 make the larger investment, the most practical way of 

 all to provide green feed for summer drouth is to fill a 

 small silo with corn silage. It not only saves the labor 

 and inconvenience in the putting in and cultivation of 

 small patches of different kinds of crops, but also in har- 

 vesting from day to day in a busy season of the year. 



"These soiling crops can be dispensed with and all 

 the feed raised from one planting in one field in the shape 

 of corn. The whole field of^corn for the silo may be cut 

 at just the right stage of maturity when the most nutri- 

 ment can be secured in the best possible condition of 

 feeding. It also avoids the possibility of the soiling crops 

 failing to ripen at .the exact period when the drouth hap- 

 pens to strike the pasture. For the silo may be opened 

 whenever the pasture fails, regardless of the date, and the 

 silage will remain in the best condition as long as needed. 

 When the pasture supplies enough feed again, what is 

 left in the silo may be covered over and thus preserved 

 without waste, and added to when refilling the silo for 

 winter use." 



Further evidence comes from the Purdue Station. Prof. 

 Skinner writes: 



"Many successful farmers with limited areas of pasture 

 make a practice of filling a small silo for summer use. It 

 has been well established that silage properly stored in 

 a good silo when the corn or other crop is in the most de- 



