The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-07

ana nearly all OF THESE materials are
recovered in the manure Such meals,
being rich in protein, balance the Stage.
If hay is fed with silage. it should be
clover or peavine hay.
The Massachusetts station found a
mixed silage of corn and sofa beana
very fine. Vermont station made su-
perior silage out of oats and vetcll; also
Of oats and peas.
Silage produced more milk at the Ohio
station, more butter at the Pennsyl-
vania station, and more mutton at the
Michigan station. than beets. Even
when there is a loss of 20 per cent in
feeding value of silage, it is a cheaper
feed than roots. The Wisconsin sta
ton preserved silage at a loss of only
s per cent of its feeding value The
loss in curing fodder is never less than
20 per cent.
The Pennsylvania station found silage
and cured fodder about equally digesti-
BILE. Kansas station grew 100 tons of
silage on ten acres, and it sustained
twenty-five head of cattle 1872 days-a
result which, it is thought, could not be
attained with ten acres of cured fod
der
Use the largest variety of corn that
will mature before frost. Experiments
at the Pennsylvania station show that
as corn approaches maturity the guam
THY of nutrients it contains and the di-
gestibility both increase very rapidly.
The total yield of digesfible food by the
matured crop was two or three times
that of the same crop in the silk, and
sc per cent greater than when the ears
began to glaze. The Minnesota station
found that 100 pounds of ensiage from
northern and southern, and sweet corn
all contained about the same feeding
value.
Silage is distinctively a cattle feed,
but the Kansas station finds it not good
for breeding bulls. 1t may be fed in
moderation to horses, pigs, poultry. and
sheep; but sour silage is dangerous to
sheep.
There has been some complaint that
silage gives milk an unpleasant flavor.
This is probably due to sollr aud decay
ing silages. The Kansas station found
that if the silage be fed just after milk
ing, instead of before, this disagree
able flavor disappears
In building silo, the essential thing
is to so construct it that air cannot en-
ter the fermenting silage. Silage is can
ned corn and is prepared on the same
principle, In canning fruit or corn, air
is expelled by heat and kept out by
sealing the can air-tight. In preserv-
ing, silage air is expelled by close
by fermentation, and is kept out by
alright walls and an alright cover
ing of hay or dirt, which covering gen
orally rests upon boards. The greater
the depth of the silo the greater the
weight and pressure and the better the
silage keeps. Since ensilage cutters
have elevators that carry the cut en-
sflage UP TO the top of a thirty-foot
wall as easily as to the top of one
twenty feet high, thirty feet is the
best depth.
Stone and brick make good silos but
they are expensive, and in order that
the inside surface of the wall may be
smooth enough to permit the siiage to
settle and pack without leaving air
holes they must be cemented, and the
acids of the silage destroy this cement
coating every year or two.
Wooden silos are cheapest and best,
and round ones are better and more
economical than square ones. 1t is diff
ficult to pack silage into corners so as
to exclude air. In warm climates 2x4
studding will do. but where hard freez-
ing may be expected, use 2x6, 8 or 10.
In ali cases sheath the outside and
then cover with tarred paper and
weather board over this Line the in
side with tongue and groove matched
lumber, two layers, with tarTed paper
between running the inside boards up
and down.
This bulletin gives minute directions
for locating, building, preserving, fill
ing and emptying the silo, and gives
several illustrations of plans. A round
Silo twenty feet in diameter and thirty
feet deep holds $50 tons and costs $500
in New York A square silo of same
capacity costs S425.
In dilating uDOn the ADVANTAGE Of
the sdlo in the diary, L. S. Hardin says
in Home and Farm: From every quar-
ter of the country attention is now
very properly being called to the ex-
treane low price of dairy goods, and
the absolute necessity for strict econ
omy in procuring feed for the COWS in
order that some respectable margin for
profit may be left to the dairyman. In
this connection, strong emphasis must
be laid upon that greatest of modern
discoveries in feeding cows, the silo SO
far as feed value and cheapness of pro-
duction are concerned, the silo has long
since passed the experimental stage
All authorities worth considering have
proven by every TEST that suggests a
fair trial that good ensilage is far and
away the best food and cheapest to
produce that has yet been used in feed
ing cows for the production of good
milk.
The average farmer can easily make
and keep a fine article of ensflage if
he will only follow with reasonable
Strictness a few simple instructions
that can easily and cheaply be pro-
cured. This feed is not only admirable
for winter use, but is rapidly taking
the place of summer pasture with no
ugly droughts staring the farmer in the
face