26 THE SUMMER SILO. 



And furthermore it will produce more milk than any other 

 kind of soiling feed." 



This is the experience of Wisconsin experimenters, 

 who find that silage holds milk-flow during drouth even 

 better than soiling. It is rational that it should. 



The substance of a strong editorial in Wallace's Farmer, 

 while referring particularly to the lesson of the 1910 

 drouth, applies with equal force wherever pasture is used 

 or cattle are fed. It is worth quoting here: 



"The question we are constantly asked is: 'Will silage 

 keep through the summer?' We are glad to be able to give 

 a direct answer to this, not theoretically, but from per- 

 sonal experience. We built a silo on one of the Wallace 

 farms and filled it in 1908, and made the mistake of build- 

 ing it too large. During the winter of 1908-9 the silage 

 was not all used. Last fall we put in new silage on top of 

 the old, and during the winter used out of the new silage, 

 leaving the unused remainder in the bottom. We are now 

 feeding that silage, and the man in charge, an experienced 

 dairyman, tells us that after the waste on top was- re- 

 moved, this two-year-old silage is as good as any he ever 

 used; that the cattle eat it as readily as anything and 

 eat more of it than they did during the winter. 



"This is in entire harmony with every farmer we ever 

 heard of who uses summer silage. If silage will keep two 

 years without any waste except on the exposed portion 

 of the surface, then it will certainly keep one. 



"Some people say: 'We may not have another summer 

 like this.' To this we reply that a period of short pastures 

 during July and August is the rule in all the corn belt 

 states, and lush grass at this season of the year is a rare 

 exception. Remember that seasons come in cycles of un- 

 known duration, and the time of their coming is uncertain; 

 that it always has been so, and it is safe to assume that 

 they always will until the Creator sees fit to change his 

 method of watering the earth. Therefore, well-made silage 

 in a good silo is just as staple as old wheat in the mill. 

 There will be a waste of several inches on the surface, 

 just as there is waste of several inches on the surface 

 of the hay stack or shock of corn fodder; but a man can 

 afford that waste, if he has the assurance that his cows 

 will not fail in their milk or his cattle lose flesh, even if 

 there should be little or no rain for thirty or sixty days. 

 When you put up a silo for summer use, you are going 



