The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-03-23
OUR FARM BUDGET.
More About silOs and Ensilage.
Utilizing GuIiies-GraPe Grafting-Raisins
Psas-strawberries-F Notes.


Eusnakcs
correspondent of the Country Gentle
man says: II have just finished feeding
out my ensilage. and it was in perfect order
/ have fed nearly 100 head of cattle this sea
son, and while feeding on this they would
not eat hay. There was no waste near the
board to speak of, more than there was in
the brick silo; everything was eaten up
clean. This matter of keeping ensilage is
no longer an experiment. L have demon
strated il to certainty, and there is no
longer any need of building extensive silos.
This business is within the reach of the
smallest farmers. When | left off feeding
ensilage my cows dropped right off at least
one-thrd of their milk. even when fed on
the best of early-cut hay.
/ will now briefly state my experience in
cutting, packing, and raising the fodder.
The fodder must be cut in pieces five
eighths of an inch long. One machine to
do this can be bought of Joseph Brock *
Sons, Boston. at a cost OF SS5, and one at the
New York PlOw Company, No. % Beekman
street. New York, for about 800. These can
be run with a single horse power. This
work should be done by parties the same as
they go round to thresh grain In that way
one machine can do the work for several
farmers at small expense. Ordinary bays IN
a barn are about the right size. 1t is import
ant that the silo should be high. and there
fore we get more perfect pressure. They
should be from fifteen TO twenty feet high;
the fodder can be hOisted as easily as hay
can be pitched that distance.
have found thatit is better TO I'LL the
silos slowly and thereby get sufficient time
to settle III YOU have two or three ailos to
fill. they had bettnr be kept along together,
filling each a foot or more once in two or
three DAYS Great care should be taken in
filling TO keep the fodder in the silo even
and tread il solid. Ii is very important that
il should be thoroughly trodden and packed.
man or two should keep constantly tread
ing while the fodder is being put in. / was
six weeks filling mine before any weight was
put on. NJ Goffart, in his late work, recon-
mends long time for filling. Another adj
vantage of slow filling is, the pressure out
ward on the building is less where high
bay is filed up slowly. If the silo Is filled
at once 10 the height Of fifteen or twenty
feet, the building must be strong and well
secured or the sides will press out.
/ have tried mixing straw with this. NJ.
Gooffat saws mix in One-tenth of the weight;
but do not like to put in any dry material
I think il better to have everything green.
After the whole is filled, boards should be
laid over and weighted with ABOUT three
tons of stone to every ten sect square. This
should stand at least six weeks before il is
opened; the stones can then be taken off and
the NOW cut down about three feet at time
in LAYERS. 1t is better to take out in one day
enough for the next. Keeping one day
ahead il will then lie up light and warm up
nicely, and if you feed meal, mix it with
this feed three times dxy and be sure that
the cattle shall have no more than will be
eaten clean at every meal
Extravagant stories have been told about
raising corn fOdder-100 tons TO the acre.
This is all folly. Twenty-Five tons OF corn
fodder sOwn in drills and cultivated with
out hOeing, on an acre, of Southern white
corn. is a good crop. Winter rye may be
sown and be cut in June, and then good
crop of corn fodder raised on the same
ground. thus getting off of one acre about
thirty-five tons of green fodder Fodder
should be prepared in this way for summer
feeding insterd of soiling 1t can be done
at much less expense and wasle. | think
that with the ensilage we can raise cattle as
advantageously as they can be raised in the
West, and il is great shame in our State
for all our cities and large villages TO de-
pend so entsrely on the West for beef that
nearly all our butchers are ruined. When
we can raise forty tons OF green food on an
acre. we can not afford TO let a COW wander
over four or five acres of pasture for living
in summer, and large part of that time get
only starvation living il the season hap
pens to be dry.
1 was the first in this State
(Maine) to go into this business,
and it has proved perfect
success. did very little till 1879, but was
satisfied from the first that common wood
silOs above ground was what we wanted and
would answer the purpose. and l went for
ward accordingly. For my first experiment
/ took three box stalls in my stable. about
twelve feet long, seven feet wide and seven
feet high. I had some early corn fodder
which cut and mixed with green clover
then had some oats on new ground that
were full of thistles; these | cut green and
put into another stall; then filled up the
last one with fresh grass, oats. that were full
of weeds and thistles. and any coarse green
stuff could find. One of these opened in
about a month, and the cattle would
eat it in preference to green grass. had
some nice working oxen, and / told my
teamster that he had better try some; bu
he laughed at me. | neglected to open tn,
second stall for some time after the first one
was gone, and my teamster came to me anC
asked when / was going to open another
stall i asked him why. He said he wanted
some for his oxen. L told him that h.
laughed at me when | spoke of feeding tn,
team on it, He told me he found he wa
mistaken; he tried, and never had a team
do 50 well in his life.
Utilizing Gullies.