4 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
ization of labor. The essential principles of silage making will also 
be set forth. The feeding of silage to various farm animals will be 
discussed with a view towards encouraging the practice with other 
farm animals than the dairy cow. Finally, this bulletin will con¬ 
tain instructions for the building of the monolithic, solid-wall, con¬ 
crete silo and also instructions for pit silo construction. 
ADVANTAGES OF SILAGE. 
1. It is a well known fact that field curing is a wasteful meth¬ 
od of preparing the forage crops for livestock feeding. Our dry 
climate and frequent winds make it especially so. Experiments 
show that at best only about 50 per cent of the crop is ultimately 
saved. Through the silo about 90 per cent can be saved, the waste 
occurring in the surface spoilage and fermentation processes which 
take place in silage formation. With most of our dry land farmers 
it is of vital importance to save all the forage possible, as it is not 
too plentiful. 
2 . The plant remains in a form which is not only nutritious, 
but also succulent and therefore palatable. Most of our farm ani¬ 
mals do best on good, green pasture, and so the more nearly we can 
imitate that condition, the better should be results. Silage is also 
eaten without waste. 
3 . The crop is stored in a convenient and compact form. 
About four times as much dry matter in forage crops can be stored 
in a given space in the silo than by field curing and storing in the 
mow. The silo can be so located as to make it very convenient for 
feeding silage to stock. Then regardless of weather conditions the 
feed is at hand, leaving the fields clear for other farm operations. 
4 . Putting corn into the silo is the most economical method 
of harvesting the crop unless it be harvesting it with livestock. 
Practical farmers find they can put corn into the silo cheaper than 
husk it in the field. Besides the grain, the forage is harvested dur¬ 
ing the same operation. 
5 . The silo makes it possible to save the abundance of favor¬ 
able years to be utilized during the years of scarcity. This advan¬ 
tage alone should justify the building of a silo on every one of our 
farms, because we are bound to have good and bad years. Silage- 
can be kept in properly constructed silos for several years at least; 
how long has never yet been demonstrated to the author’s knowl¬ 
edge. 
6 . Silage is the best supplement for pastures, which in the 
case of dry land sections are entirely inadequate, especially for the 
