330 REPORT OF THE FARM SUPERINTENDENT OF THE 
ing green fodder without the expense of building a silo. There 
are only two serious objections to the outdoor silo: First, the | 
large proportion of loss, and second the inclemency of our climate 
at the time the silage is required to be fed. 
The first resolves itself into whether the loss is greater than the 
annual interest, expense and losses on an ordinary silo, or whether 
this loss is greater, taking into consideration the greater value of 
the succulent silage, than by field curing. The expense and 
storage is much less than in field curing, while the weight of 
preserved forage will be somewhat greater than of the field 
cured. | 
One other item to cheapen the outdoor silo is the fact that the 
weighting is unnecessary. Our first stack the past season was 
without pressure other than its own weight and the top which - 
slipped off, yet the silage preserved was quite equal in quality to 
that of the original stack. 
A trial has been made by Mr. E. F. Bowditch, Millwood Farm, 
Framingham, Mass., in which he simply stacked the corn in the 
field during a rain storm. A trench was dug around the stack 
and the removed earth thrown on the top. This stack was 
reduced considerable in height, but yielded enough silage of good 
quality to be favorably reported.* 
The climatic objection is more of a drawback. The silage 
should be disturbed only as fast as needed for feeding, since it 
changes quite rapidly after being removed, and it can scarcely be 
kept from freezing if fed from the outdoor stack every day; though 
a rough shelter for the side from which the silage is being taken 
will serve toward overcoming this objection. This seems to be 
the most economic form of preserving silage where mild weather 
prevails during the feeding period, while further trials may prove 
it to be so for colder climates, especially for corn preseyved whole 
and for other plants which require less cutting, as the grasses, 
clovers, and other forage plants of like physical character. Also, 
when and where it becomes an object-to keep over a stock of 
green food for spring and summer use. This can well be a sub- 
ject of thought and foresight by every thrifty farming community. 
* American Cultivator, Vol. LI, No. 4, 1889. 
