Arizona republican., 1891-05-12
FOOD OF THE FUTURE.
5 Ensilage Is the Coming Fodder for Do g. nestle Animals.

Ensilage Is the Coming Fodder for Dos
 nestle Animals.
 Food for stock ranching and dairying : Is the great question on this Coast. The great outside ranges on Uncle Sams pastures may now be considered thing < of the past, and if we have Cattle Kings ;; in the future, they must be kings con- fined to their own legitimate holdings of the earths surface, for in the future they will be shut out from the public domain, and from the land owned by others. He must feed his herds from what grows on his own lands, and if one attempts to carry more stock than his own holdings can feed, he must store up food to carry them through periods of scarcity. Then we must prepare to grow the most and best food to the acre. Land becomes so valuable that only the cheapest unplowable land will be left for pasturage or range. Eventually the same modes of rearing animals will be practiced here, from necessity, that are now in use in Belgium, Holland and other more thickly settled regions of Europe. There grass, roots, etc., are grown with the greatest care and econ omy, and fed in stables built expressly for that purpose. The only grazing that stock of any kind is allowed to do, is when tethered out in places inaccessi- ble for the blow, on the roadside aud in corners. High-priced land and econom- ical feeding will make necessary some way of storing up succulent feeds cheaper than grains-for food during winter, which answers the place of the dry season on this Coast.
 Such way of storing up cheap foods has been devised, and has been in use for many years in Europe, but in a crude and costly way. Crude, like all new forms of doing things, but capable of being greatly improved.
 This plan is to place large quantities of green food, such as grass, clovers, in- dian corn and such, in pits or bins, where it ferments and pickles itself in its own juices. Such foods will keep without change for a somewhat indef- mite time, and are most excellent for stock of all kinds.
 The Dutch and German sauerkraut, made from cabbages and turnips, is a familiar example of such succulent vege- tables preserved in bulk, under pressure, in their own natural pickle.
 In preserving fodder for cattle by the same plan, the fodder is cut up when mature, but still green, and then packed down in a great pit or box called a silo. It is firmly tramped down, then weighted. After fermenting it settles down into nearly solid mass, and is then good food, known as ensilage.
 The silo is constantly undergoing change and improvements, especially in its cheapness, since its introduction into this country. In the start, a great stone- lined and cemented pit in the ground was thought to be the only thing in which good ensilage could be made that would keep. Trial and invention has changed all of this, and now the practi- cal silo is made of strong, rough, un- matched boards, entirely above ground, and even may be in the second or third story of barns Stock may be stalled beneath them, thus saving great labor in feeding.
 A close and careful farmer in Ohio, who was forced to make every cent tell to keep him afoat, built cheap wooden silos five years ago, and filled them with corn fodder-ripe-but green. Before adopting this plan, the best he could possibly do on his farm, was to carry 15 to 20 head of stock, with little if any profit. With the silos and ensilage, he keeps AZ head from the same land, and his farm is growing richer under this system; for he saves all the manure, and spreads it where and when it will do the most good. Our future will see the use of the silo, general
 The better the climate for good fodder growth, the more useful the silo. Silo should no longer be thing of the past. Every dairy should have it in use to-day. Under irrigation the best ensilage in the world can be made.