The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-08-30
Silo and Silage.

The silo is simply an air-tight, wa
ter-tight box for preserving green
food for winter use. 1t must not
only protect against air. but against
frost.
The pits and stone silos that were
first used have disappeared, and the
wooden silo have taken their places.
With the wooden silo it is not neces-
sary to place it underground. 1t can
be placed in the barnyard if there is
room for it. In selecting place for
your s;lo remember that silagc is hea-
Wy to handle and feeding is done
twice day, so place it as near your
stock as possible. There is no OBJ
lection to silo as small as ten feet
square, provided it is sixteen or eight
cen feet deep, so as to overcome the
friction of the sides, which is as great
in small silo as large one. The
deeper the silo, the better the silage
will settle, and the better it will keep.
The damp silage will soon rot the
lining unless it is well painted with
gas tar. Put good roof on and
board up the gables, leaving window
with shutter for ventilation. This
should be closed in very cold weather
and opened on pleasant days, or the
steam from the silagc will decay the
roof.
At first it was thought that drilled
corn was better for silage than hilled
corn, but as drilled corn does not ma
turc many ears, it does not make as
good silage as hilled corn. The crop
| should be cut when most Of the ears
are glazed, run thror yh an ensilage or
hay cutter, and tramped into the silo.
Have a good man in the silo to do the
packing, for if this is half done the
silage will damage around the walls.
It is only necessary to tramp space
about four feet around the sides, as
the middle will settle of it's own
weight. Beyond question corn is the
most profitable crop for silage. 1t is
a very sure crop. 1t grows very rap
idly and we get large yield per acre.
From twelve to thirty tons have been
grown on an acre. Glover makes the
| best silage, but the land of this Sec
tion is too poor to give a heavy crop,
and some years it is a complete failure.
AS peas are very sure crop and give
large yield per acre, they would be
good substitute for clover. Corn is
carbonaceous food and peas are nj
trogenous, so the two combined in the
silo would form balanced ration and
be better than either corn or peas
alone. To feed silage successfully we
must have good warm stable, for it
is green succulent food and will not
give success if fed in the open lot.
Neither should it be fed without some
dry fodder, but if there are plenty OF
ears in the silage do not feed corn
meal, but give some cotton seed OF
cotton seed meal Cows fed upon
this ration, will look as sleek and tat
as if on June pasture.
The cost of producing ton of si.
lage should not exceed SO cents, and
by using labor-saving tools it can be
made much cheaper.
By experiments it has been found
that the stalk contains as much fooo
as the leaves and ear. If this is so,
look what an enormous quantity OF
food has been wasted for so many
years on almost all Southern farms
but until the discovery OF the silo
these stalks could not be used for feeo
for when dry they are so hard thai
stock will not cat them. This il
where the silo comes in and saves thi:
enormous waste and enables you tt
feed more stock and do it better:
Any farmer handy with tools cal
construct his silo himself, and it vii
not cost him over 30 cents per ton ca
pacity. Silage is no experiment. Il
is in general use throughout the N ORTIZ
and West, and where it has been triee
intelligcntly in the South, it has prov
od succnssful = Y0rIrille En0Nlrer.