10 Concrete Silos 



from rats and mice and from shelling in handling so 

 many times. 



It costs on an average about 12% cents to put corn 

 into the shock and about 12% cents to shuck it out. 

 The stover (stalk without the ear), sells on the average 

 for about 12% cents a shock. This is an expensive 

 operation, even when it is the last resort, but on some 

 farms it is a common practice. 



However, when a man has no silo in which to har- 

 vest corn and his crop rotation is such that corn is to 

 be followed by wheat, or some other fall sowing, about 

 the only thing he can do is to cut the corn and put it 

 into the shock. This is especially true if a man is a 

 grain farmer and cannot forage the corn off. 



Again it may be stated that while silage can be fed 

 to practically all farm animals to good advantage, it is 

 pre-eminently the ideal ration for cattle, and especially 

 the dairy cow. It thus forms an important link in 

 connecting up one of our largest farm crops with the 

 wide-spread and important industry of cattle raising 

 and dairying. 



The digestive organs of animals that chew the cud 

 are so formed as to require comparatively juicy and 

 bulky food. The cow cannot, therefore, thrive on ex- 

 clusively dry food so well as can the horse. The near- 

 est an ideal food that can be obtained for the dairy 

 cow is good pasture; but for more than six months in 

 the year green pasture is not available in large sec- 

 tions of this country. The best substitutes to use dur- 

 ing this period are corn silage and such roots as man- 

 gels and turnips. Corn yields an average of twice as 

 much dry matter per acre as do root crops, and, since 

 the latter require much more labor, which in this 



