22 
bulletin 89. 
quire from one to five acres cultivated in sorghum to feed a 
milch cow through the season of poor grazing. A man who lias 
ten cows can milk them and raise enough feed to feed them and 
their calves through the winter. The feeds that he would be 
likely to raise are wheat and millet hay, corn fodder and sorghum. 
Some years he would raise enough grain to make a good ration 
for the cows, and during some years he would have only rough¬ 
ness which he could profitably use with some of the concentrated 
feeds which are on the market. At present practically all the set¬ 
tlers use the forage and grain which they can produce and buy as 
little as possible. Ensilage should in the future be a part of the 
winter rations of the milch cow. I have frequently been asked 
about ensilage by* settlers who were thinking of doing winter 
dairying. No trouble should be experienced in making good en¬ 
silage anywhere on the Plains. In fact the Australian stockman 
makes ensilage by stacking the green forage above ground just as 
it is cut, and weighting the stacks heavily. I would not advise 
this, however, because forage is too scarce on the Plains to afford 
to waste the amount that is lost by making ensilage in the stack. 
In mail)' locations it is easy to make a pit near the bank of a 
creek or ravine so that a door may open from it into the ravine. 
This will resemble the costly silos which are built above ground. 
On level ground an immense cistern will answer the purpose per¬ 
fectly. These underground s,ilos will be used at less expense than 
the silos built above ground, as the green fodder does not have to 
be elevated. It can be merely thrown into a pit and trampled 
down solid. Of course the pit will be better and more substantial 
if the walls and bottom are cemented. I11 filling the silos the 
green forage should be run through a cutting machine and the 
stalks should be reduced to pieces one half inch to one inch in 
length. A11 ensilage cutter suitable for filling small silos which 
can be run either by a windmill or by horse power can be bought 
for about $40 or $50. By making the green feed into ensilage 
the waste caused by the hay and fodder being covered with dust 
by the wind storms, may be avoided. The pit silo can be made 
by the home labor with no cash outlay. After it is filled it 
should be covered to a depth of one and one half to two feet with 
hay or straw, or any trash which will keep the dirt out of the cut 
feed, and then earth should be thrown upon that covering to 
weight it down. About one foot of earth should be enough, but 
the weight of earth should be put on according to the depth of 
the ensilage in the silo. I have seen one foot of earth put upon 
eighteen feet of ensilage with good results. 
She 1 ter. In nearlv everv locality good sod is available for 
building purposes. The adobe soil furnishes the best sod for this 
purpose, but any stiff clay soil will make a strong wall. Light 
