CATTtB. 347 



around, getting the practical benefits of a round silo. The cost of build- 

 ing a silo inside the barn will cost about fifty cents per ton for the 

 amount of ensilage, or the silo for twenty cows would hold about one 

 hundred twenty tons and cost about $60.00, exclusive of work. Build 

 the silo yourself at odd times, and do not expend a cent for carpenter's 

 work. Any man who knows enough to run a saw, a hammer and a 

 level can build a silo like these described. 



If there is not room to build a silo in the barn, the cost of construct- 

 ing on the same plan will be three or four times as great. Seek to have 

 the silo inside the barn, if possible, as it is cheaper, handier, and all 

 things considered, far the best plan. The feeding-door should be con- 

 veniently located and run to the top of the silo, so the ensilage can be 

 fed from the top. Instead of doors use boards that can be removed as 

 fast as the mass of ensilage settles, so that all lifting is avoided in 

 pitching out. 



Never put anything in for ensilage but corn, because you can raise 

 three times more in food value than any other crop. I,and that will 

 produce a ton of hay per acre will raise ten tons of corn, and land that 

 will raise one and one-half tons of hay will raise fifteen tons of corn per 

 acre. Two and one-half tons of ensilage is worth as much as a ton of 

 hay, so to make the producing powers of an acre equal to the corn for 

 ensilage, we would have to raise six tons per acre. My practice of rais- 

 ing corn is this: I follow a three-year rotation, clover, corn, and grain, 

 seeding with eight quarts of clover, two of timothy, mowing the clover 

 twice, then putting it to corn the following spring. During the winter 

 I put the manure on this clover sod as fast as it is made, about fifteen 

 loads per acre. It is plowed in the spring about six inches deep, then 

 rolled and fitted with a spring-tooth harrow thoroughly and marked 

 both ways j ust three feet. I find it makes very little difference whether the 

 corn is in hills or drills, if the same amount of seed is used, except in the 

 cultivation, it often being desirable to cultivate both ways. What is 

 wanted is the largest, earliest variety which will mature in your locality. 

 Never, under any circumstances, put on more than ten quarts of seed to 

 the acre, because we must remember corn is a sun plant, and to properly 

 mature, it cannot be planted thick. Many put in a piece of fodder corn 

 and plant it a bushel or two of seed per acre. I actually met one man 

 this winter in southern New York, who said he wanted four bushels to 

 the acre for good, sowed corn. I would rather have a windmill than a 

 crop like that, because I could get the wind and water into the animal 



