The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-08-12
The Value and Cost of Silage.

4 - OOpb VI OiiuSVe
We copy below a paper read before q
New York Farmers Institute, several
years ago, by that excellent and we'll
known dairyman, W. H. Gilbert.
Though delivered over five years ago,
it is full of good meat and well worthy
of a careful and intelligent perusal.
"The subject of silage has been so
thoroughly canvassed and is so we'll
understood by the farmers of central
New York, that l shall only give you a
few facts and figures. l was blessed,
or cursed, with a farm that would not
produce hay, but was well adapted to
corn culture. 1t was light, available,
sandy soil, easily cultivated. AS soon
as l was convinced hat corn could be
preserved in a silo, l became an easy
and willing convert to the system.
From the first, l acted on the principle
that l could not make something out of
nothing, or in other words, that l could
not make a good, substantial, healthy
food for mich COWS out of green, i'm
mature sowed corn; that in order to
take good silage out of the silo, l must
put good corn in, and that far enough
advanced towards maturity to make a
good, nutritious, profitable food when
cut and fed to cows. / have had the
best results from feeding silage when
the corn was well cared aud had COM
menced to glaze. The sweetest silage
l ver saw | made from a field of corn
put into the silo when the ears were
full and at its best. 1t was as sweet
when taken from the silo as when first
put in and had a strong molasses odor.
For the last three winters, l have kept
an average of three cows an acre. The
last season, l had t~wenty-four acres of
large southern white corn, planted in
drills three feet apart, that produced
1902 cubic feet of pressed silage.
That will keep forty COWS seven
months. Cows giving milk need a
grain ration every day. Cows not Civ
ing milk will gain flesh on this ration of
silage without any grain. | estimated
average of fifty bushels of ears to the
acre-about one-half of which were
glazed.
"The estimated cost of fitting the
land and c~ultivating the corn wat SS4.
The actual cost of the seed and har-
vesting and putting it into the silo was
SIG, making a total cost of $3.50, or a
cost of $10.S4 per acre, or $3.50 for toe
ration of a mich COW seven months,
equal in feeding value to 1920 pounds
of hay that ould sell in the Syracuse
market to-day for from S25 to $50.
There are farms in Onondaga county
that, when properly cultivated, will
produce from 100 to $50 bushels OF ears
of corn per acre, or, if cut at the proper
time, fifteen to twenty tons of silage
per acre, four tons of which will winter
a cow. Any farmer that can use his
pencil and will figure a little can tell
how much it will cost him to raise an
acre of corn. In August and Sep
TENDER l fed two acres of corn,
planted in hills three feet apart
each way, to my COWS. The corn
was cut and bound in bundles of two
hills each, and fed one bundle to each
COW night and morning. l was sur
prised at the result; my cows gained
over twenty five pounds in their
product. | kept n unruly cow in the
stable, and six hills per day was all she
would eat. | began 10 think my corn
field was going to pay a dividend, l
found by setting 100 hills in a row that
| have an average of four and one
half ears to hill, and that an acre OF
perfect corn planted three feet apart
would give me 4,730 hills: seven hills a
day would keep a 10Y 675 days, giving
her a daily ration of 731 pounds, in
Guiding thirty-two ears OF corn. That
corn would have an equal feeding
value if preserved in the silo. l am
now feeding silage that costs me not to
exceed one and one-half cents a day,
that has a feeding value equal to
twenty pounds of the best hay. l re-
Gently read a statement of a Wisconsin
dairyman, who keeps a herd of about
seventy five cows that he is making
butter from, on a ratio of silage and
bran that only costs him seven and one
half cents a day. ] merely refer to
this to show you that the western
dairymen are aware of the advantages
of the silo. l am satisfied that, in or
der to compete with western enter
prise, the NewYork dairyman will find
the silo a necessity ,"-Hoard's Dairy
man.