INTRODUCTION. 9 



systems of growing and curing crops for the feeding of 

 farm animals. We shall show that up-to-date dairy or 

 stock farming is well nigh impossible without the aid of 

 a silo. The silo enables us to feed live stock succulent 

 feeds the year around, and preserves the fodder in a bet- 

 ter condition and with less waste than any other system 

 can. We shall see the why and wherefore of this in the 

 following pages, and shall deal with the best way of mak- 

 ing and feeding silage to farm animals. We wish to state 

 at the outset that we do not propose to indulge in .un- 

 warranted statements or claims that will not stand the 

 closest investigation. In the early days of the history 

 of the silo movement it was thought necessary to make 

 exaggerated claims, but this is no longer the case. Naked 

 facts are sufficient to secure for the silo a permanent 

 place among the necessary equipment of a modern dairy 

 or stock farm. In discussing the silo we shall keep close 

 to what has been found out at our experiment stations, 

 and, we believe, shall be able to prove to any fair-minded 

 reader that the silo is the greatest boon that has come 

 to modern agriculture since the first reaper was manu- 

 factured, and that with competition and resulting low 

 prices, it will be likely to become more of a necessity to 

 our farmers in the future than it has been in the past. 

 We aim to convince our readers that the most sensible 

 thing they can do is to plan to build a silo at once if they 

 do not now have one. It is unnecessary to argue with 

 those who are already the happy possessors of a silo, for 

 it is a general experience where a farmer has only pro- 

 vided for immediate wants in building his silo that he will 

 build another as soon as he has had some experience 

 with silage and finds out how his stock likes it, and 

 how well they do on it. 



Modern practice has proved that no man need say 

 "I cannot afford a silo," because any farmer who is at 

 all handy wifh hammer and saw can provide a silo large 

 enough for a medium-sized dairy with very little actual 

 outlay of money. And this same built-at-home silo will 



