Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-07-18
SILO AND ENSIlAGE.
A Maine Mans Success with Ensilage for
Stock.

stock.
Last season l built my silo. the only
one in my part of the town. and my
original knowledge of it was all gath
cred from newspaper articles. In the
barn l took for the silo two bays. which
extended to the bottom of the cellar, 10
feet below the floor, and up to the girder
8 feet. They were, when finished leach
bay making a silo), 12x13l feet, 10 feet
deep.
The material used was 3x4 joist, with
common hemlock or pine boards for a
covering. On this was q covering of
tarred paper, and l covered again with
matched pine boards, being careful to
break joints as in shingling. The bot
tom was cemented with Portland CO.
ment. If properly done. the result is a
silo as tight as a glass jar.
The two essential points in building a
silo are to have it air tight, and to have
1t properly stayed and braced. found
that one Of my silos had sprung off just
enough to admit the air. Consequently
& Ton Or two of ensilage was injured,
making a loss Of more than twice enough
to have paid for doing it properly.
The material used for filing was corn,
seven acres of common field corn, which
| allowed to stand until its glazing state,
just in the right condition to cut up and
shock: three acres of sweet corn, first
gathering the corn and sending it to the
canning factory producing $50 to the
acre), and three acres OF fiat corn sown
in drills on poor land, using $50 pounds
of phosphate to the acre. When this last
was cut the ears We're just forming.
l cut from each piece as I filled, so as
to have it thoroughly mixed, no two
loads being put in at thesane time from
the same piece. One silo was filled at a
time, putting in twenty-five tons per day.
though thirty tons is not a hard days
work. There was a man in the silo all
the time leveling off and trtading down.
The sides should be kept a little higher
than the center. and that is where most
of the t~reading should be done, 50 that
when it settles the sides shall not 60 be.
low the center, thus causing an air space
on the outer sides, which would iniure
the cnsilage.
When filled, AZ covering of oat straw
was put on about a foot in depth, and
this was covered tightly with planks
weighted with phosphate bags filled with
loan, about fifty pounds to the square
foot. When removed, the loan makes
good bedding for cattle.
The mass settled to about fifteen feet
in height, thus giving me about 1870 tons,
reckoning fifty pounds to the cubic foot,
which | am inclined to think a little too
much. Perhaps forty-fve pounds would
be nearer. This summer l shall enlarge,
going to the beams, thus giving a capac-
ity for 200 tons, which l shall fill if corn
grows as well this year as last. l am
well satisfied that the silo is the way out
OF our present troubles on account of the
low price of farm products. Now we
can keep more cattle at a very much
lower cost, and keep them much better.
My silo was opened on Nov. 10, feed
ing t%hirty-one head of cattle, ranging all
the way from calves to COWS and 3-year-
old steers. The last was fed out on April
16. The animals We're fed on ensilage
three times a day, giving a bushel to
three COWS o. steers at a feeding: once
on unthreshed oats at noon, and once Oh
oat or rye straw at night. The only grain
fed was four quarts Of shorts to each AMI
NAL.
There is another lot of twenty-onc
head, 1 and 2-year-old steers, on my farm,
Which l have had wintered at another
barn on some grain Or good stock hay
and unthreshed oats. These have not
made the growth that the others have.
thus giving a proctical proof Of the adj
vantages Of feeding on silage. The silage
cost less than - per ton. and p tons are
fully equal to Il ton of the best early cut
hay.-J. w. Cook, Of Maine. in Amer
lean Cultivator.