42 THE CREAMERY PATRON'S HANDBOOK. 



let this be well filled and then well emptied twice a day than to be constantly 

 adding a little from time to time. 



There seems no valid reason for wetting forage and then placing meal 

 thereon unless the cattle like such feed a great deal better than in the dry 

 form. Carefully conducted tests show that forage and grain are often actu- 

 ally injured for stock-feeding by being cooked. The dairyman should usu- 

 ally not cook any feed for his cattle. Roots are a good feed for cattle, 

 but it costs too much to produce them in this country. The farmer who is 

 inclined to grow roots for his cattle because he feels their need of succulent 

 feed in the winter time should build a silo and use that instead of the root 

 cellar. A good crop of corn silage costs only about half as much as roots for 

 the nutriment furnished. 



The silo as an adjunct to dairying, calls for special treatment. The silo 

 is simply a large tub or vat in which green forage, usually the corn plant, 

 is preserved until required for feeding cows. Whoever uses the silo should 

 see that it is air-tight and well made. "Cheap" silos are a delusion. Even 

 though the cattle will eat silage from a poorly made silo, it has usually lost 

 much of its value through slow fermentation and waste. With a good silo 

 one can store- a large amount of green corn in most palatable form to be 

 used when required. Corn is the best silage crop. It should be cut into 

 half-inch to inch and half lengths and placed in the silo when the grains 

 of corn on the ears are dented and while the leaves of the plant are still green. 

 The silo should be slowly and steadily filled. Great care should be taken 

 in packing the material about the walls, and if the silo is not deep, the ma- 

 terial should be weighted. In corn silage no part of the corn plant is wasted 

 by the animal, the coarser parts being readily consumed. By preserving 

 the -corn in the silo there is no husking or otherwise caring for the grain, 

 every part of the work being performed in the single operation of silo filling. 

 Dairy cows- are universally fond of corn silage when they have once learned 

 to know it. At the University farm when feeding cows liberally on corn 

 silage we have had them refuse to eat so much as five pounds of hay per day, 

 though the latter was of good quality. The dairyman because of the large 

 amount of manure produced on the farm can grow large crops of corn, and 

 this can be preserved in the silo. Silage is useful not only for winter feeding 

 but for summer feeding, when a shortage of pasture is apt to occur. Some 

 dairymen think even more of the silo for summer use than for winter feed- 

 ing. Twenty years ago the silo was advocated by a few enthusiasts who 

 claimed unreasonable things for it. These claims did much harm and preju- 

 diced many dairymen. Strangely this prejudice yet exists in many places. 

 All dairymen do not need a silo. Some of them keep only a few cows on a 

 given area of land and have plenty of roughage; such do not need a silo. 

 The dairyman who needs a silo is the one who keeps a large number of cows 

 relatively on a given area of land, and is always short of coarse feed and 

 corn. The silo in and of itself will not help the dairyman any more than will 

 a wagon, a horse or anything else all depends upon whether it is needed or 



