The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-26

| Jason Sexton was asked at the late
Hatboro, Penn, institute to talk upon
ensilage. and at first declined, saying he
was out Of date almost upon the siio
question; but, as no one would believe il,
he gave his experience. MIR. William
| Singerly," he said, had the first silo that
| was built in Pennsylvania, DrOba bly,. I
knew nothing about the silo and ensilage
and he knew less. but If. as foreign pa
| pers told, ensilage was the best form in
which to save the corn plant for winter
feeding, and the silo was the proper
| thing to keep 1t in, he was going to have
one. and he insisted upon having silo.
And we had one, and what we learned
about ensilage was by hard knocks.
THE first silo l ever saw was on the
! place of a Mr. Mills. up in northern New
Jersey. / went specially TO see IL, to
! find out how 10 build ours 1 saw the
| first ensilage there and thought IL a very
bad food. spoiled and not nit for use. But
Mr. Mills said IL was good.
Our first silo was built in 1881 at
Franklin Mill. 1t was above ground and
Of stone. two feet thick, 40 feet long. y
feet wide, afterwards increased TO Is and
in two sections 1t was lined with ce-
ment, we being very particular TO have
il water-tight. 1t was also weighted, not
with stones, but by screws. The theory
then was that the corn must be put in
very green, when coming into tasSel. We
thought when we looked our fields over
that we had grown a great deal too
much, but found when we came to run
it through the cutter and pack 1t away
that we hadn't enough for one com9art-
ment-
I'VE opened the pit about the middle
of December and found lot OF stun that
was very sour. but l was sure it was all
right, because it was of the same odor as
that up in New Jersey. The cows at first
wouldn't touch it, but by putting a little
grain on it they came TO like it, and.
once getting to eating 1t, became very
greedy for it. We kept on feeding it I'M
TIL when we were about four feet from
the bottom, we came to water, and how
- ILr.Tk E~-e~A To-,
as the PITS had been guaranteed water
tight From this down the stuff was
rotten and hardly fit for fertilizer, and
we threw it out. We began studying the
matter and as consequence, put in
drains, and had no more trouble on that
score
"The next thing we had to learn was
how to grow what was to be put into it.
We had grown the corn in drills. using
two and a half bushels of seed to the
acre and getting weakly, s1ckly stalks
that a storm would knock fiat. This. as
I have said, we at first cut green, but
the second year we let it get little more
mature and we found we had done well.
as II was better Our next lesson was
that half bushel of seed was better than
the five times as much we had been
using, and with more space between the
Then we improved it still more by letting
it get ripper before cutting. 1t took MANY
dollars and much experimenting and
study to find out all that is known now
fitted by the results of the experience
realize.
ANYONE with dairy of ten cows and
upwards should have a silo- Nothing
can be grown upon an acre Of ground
that will give as great returns as corn
for the silo. No other kind of corn fod-
der has given us anything like the same
satisfaction as ensilage. 1t is a milk
giving food, but wheat bran is necessary
10 give the balanced ration
Now we cut the corn when the ears
begin to glaze, cutting all of it, ears,
blade and stalk, and putting it in An
other lesson we learned was that pressure
is not necessary.
ITO make dairying pay, get cows suited
TO the purpose intended and soil them
Build a silo, give the cows a place for
exercise, but soil them and save the
manure. 1t will pay to keep the extra
man soiling makes necessary, because of
the small acreage that needs to be used
for dairy purposes, the rest being given
to other purposes. On our high-priced
land. and good land in Montgomery and
Bucks counties is high-priced, we can
compete with the cheap lands of the west
in dairying. and almost in this only"