By-Products 163 
Siloing beet tops. 
The greatest feed value can be obtained from beet tops 
by siloing. This practice also proves beneficial by free- 
ing the leaves from pests, such as the leaf-spot and crown- 
rot organisms, and by removing the favorable hibernating 
places for insects. Siloing has the serious drawback that 
it requires considerable labor at a time when hands are 
most needed. To make good silage, the tops should be 
carts fill 
i hen nte meee 
carta 
Fig. 24. — Beet-top silo above ground. 
put into the silo within two or three days after being re- 
moved from the beet. It usually pays to silo the tops if 
conditions are favorable; but the supply and wages of 
local labor and other economic considerations make the 
problem one that each farmer must solve for himself. 
The usual method of siloing beet tops consists in digging 
a trench six to ten feet wide, four to five feet deep, and 
as long as necessary in a well-drained soil, as convenient 
as possible to the feeding yards (Fig. 25). Silos are 
sometimes made on top of the ground, as in Fig. 24, but 
the depth is governed to some extent by the nearness of 
