412 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 2, 
SIZE OF SILOS. 
The building of a silo is of a great 
deal of importance, and before it is un¬ 
dertaken a man should investigate thor¬ 
oughly the principles relating to the 
construction and storage of silage. One 
of the early mistakes was to build silos 
too large in diameter and too small in 
height. This resulted in getting very 
little pressure on the silage, which per¬ 
mitted the air to get in, and conse¬ 
quently caused the ruin of the feed. 
Wherever air can touch the silage, 
numerous germs from the air attach 
themselves to the moist surface of the 
silage, and the sugars in the silage be¬ 
come food for the minute plants that 
cause putrefaction or molding. ] f the 
silage is very green the putrefaction bac¬ 
teria develop most, while if the silage 
is old, that is, made from mature corn¬ 
stalks, the spores of mold develop most. 
In either case the silage is ruined. The 
first thing, therefore, a farmer must look 
out for is to have sufficient height to 
his silo, so that the pressure on the un¬ 
derlying silage will be very great. All 
things chopped up fine, as is all prop¬ 
erly cut silage, develop a great deal of 
lateral pressure. This forces the silage 
out against the sides of the silo, and 
packs it so firmly against the walls that 
air cannot get in. The plan is to build 
a silo not less than 30 feet in height, 
and generally not less than 16 feet in 
diameter. If the silos are built small 
in diameter they become expensive, as a 
silo eight feet in diameter would cost 
a great deal more per ton of capacity 
than one 16 feet wide. These dimen¬ 
sions are being quite widely followed in 
the construction of most of the silos in 
central New York. The diameter be¬ 
yond 16 feet must depend upon the size 
of the herd. The larger the herd the 
greater may be the diameter of the silo. 
For myself, I believe that anyone hand¬ 
ling 12 head of cows or steers can well 
afford a silo. Tn this discussion I want 
to deal fairly with the question. I do 
not believe that a dairyman may not be 
successful without the silo, but I do con¬ 
tend that the same dairyman will be 
more successful when using the silo. 
Let me say to every dairyman and stock 
raiser, build a silo corresponding in size 
to the size of your herd; don’t put it off 
from year to year, but be sure to 
build it. 
An average acre of corn should pro¬ 
duce from seven to 10 tons of silage. 
At 40 pounds of silage a day, together 
with shredded fodder or clover hay, an 
acre of corn will keep a cow or a steer 
a full year; they, of course, required a 
protein ration in addition. From my 
own experience and observation I find it 
requires at least three acres of pasture 
lands under favorable conditions to keep 
one animal a year, and on this basis with 
corn and silage, one can keep almost 
three times as much stock as by pastur¬ 
age alone. 
Perhaps to the small dairyman or 
stock raiser, the difficulties that stand in 
the way of the silo, are imaginary rather 
than real. First in order, perhaps, is 
the cost of the silo, and second, the ex¬ 
pense of filling. But a good silo that 
will last for a number of years can be 
erected at a nominal cost. Every farmer 
should be able to do his own cementing 
and thus make his own silo foundation, 
also with a little help, to erect it. This 
would materially lessen the first cost of 
silo. As regards the kind of silo to 
erect I can recommend a good home¬ 
made elm-hooped hemlock silo as being 
perhaps as satisfactory as any other. 
Good silos all ready to put up can be 
bought at a fair price. One of my 
neighbors has an elm-hooped hemlock 
silo, which he built himself, that has 
done duty successfully for over 15 years, 
and is still in a good state of preserva¬ 
tion. The inside lining of rough boards 
has to be removed every four or five 
years, but the rest of the silo stands as 
it did when first constructed. This kind 
of silo is giving good satisfaction and 
with a new lining once in a while will 
last a number of 3 'ears 
The question of a protein ration in 
connection with silage I consider to be 
the most important one, aside from the 
silo itself. With bran hanging around 
$25 a ton the year round, and other 
protein feeds proportionately high, it 
is very necessary at least to make the 
attempt to provide a protein food that 
will be less expensive. To that end we 
each experiment in a small way with 
Soy beans and give one another the 
benefit of our experience. A mixed sil¬ 
age of corn and Soy beans grown to¬ 
gether, yields 10 to 12 tons per acre, 
and with a variety of corn that grows 
fairly tall, producing two ears to the 
stalk, and a full crop of well-ripened 
Soy beans mixed with the corn, we have 
a dairy ration almost perfectly balanced 
for the best results. I use the Learning 
corn that grows here on good land 10 
to 12 fet high, producing from one to 
two well-matured ears on every stalk. 
I plant this corn about five quarts per 
acre, with about two quarts of Soy beans 
per acre. Planted with the corn, culti¬ 
vated and harvested together, allowed to 
mature as much grain as possible of 
both corn and beans before harvesting, 
they will be well mixed in the silage 
and furnish a feed rich in both protein 
and carbohydrates, and for best results 
needs only the addition of a little cotton¬ 
seed meal to the daily ration. My daily 
ration this Winter was 40 pounds corn 
and beans silage, and two pounds of 
cotton-seed meal given in two feeds, and 
I have never seen Holstcins do better 
everyday work. In undertaking to mix 
corn and Soy beans for silage it is ad¬ 
vised that only a small area of beans 
be grown the first year in order to see 
whether the crop can be readily pro¬ 
duced, and whether the results of mix¬ 
ing corn and Soy beans prove satisfac¬ 
tory. j. p. F. 
Central New York. 
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Nature has provided the hog with great digestive capacity. It reaches full devel¬ 
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in bulk and weight, (often several hundred pounds), made in a season’s feeding, 
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D B HESS 
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Also Manufacturers of Dr. Hess Poultry I’an-a-ce-a and Instant Louse Killer. 
INSTANT LOUSE KILLER KILLS LICE. 
