Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-08-26
Advantages d The sile. !.

The use of the silo is extending every
year and the better understanding amOnf
| the people using 1t, in regard to the cor.
rect principles of making and filling 81
| los. makes their use as successful and
| the product of about as uniform uuality
as any other crop on the farm. Machin-
cry Tor harvesting, cutting and storing
the feed has been SO improved that It Il
now probably the cheapest way in which
winter feed can be provided. While the
use of the silo Is greatest in dairy dis
tricts Its value for the growing and main
tenance OF other cattle Is no less than In
the case OF the dairy herd. There is also
an increased use OF the silo for summer
feed and the Live Stock Indicator saws
that in the Northwest. and the further
West the worse pastures suffer from dry
weather about three years out Of five.
The midsummer season is so dry that
both the pastures and the cattle that de-
pend on them suffer. The cattle fail to
get enough to eat and the tramping and
close cropping they do In trying injuries
the pastures quite severely. One OF the
important questions to western agricul-
ture is how to best tide over this mid
summer season when the pastures are
scanty. The silo furnishes q means
whereby they can be supplemented, for
silage ~ as readily eaten In midsummer
as in midwinter. It is great advantage
in dairy feeding, for IL the milk yield is
not kept up during the summer It will
not be regained. even when the pastures
become good again IN the fall. Like
many other discoveries, the value OF ST.
lage for midsummer feeding was found
out by accident. Dairymen who were
generous providers put up so much sflage
that 1t could not be consumed during the
winter. and when their pastures failed It
left over In the silo. when 1t was found
that the animals ate 1t as eagerly and
as advantageously in summer as In win
ter.
1t Is now common practice with a
good many dalrymen who have large ST.
los to run a partition through them. the
partition wall extending up perhaps only
naif way. say twelve or fifteen feet II the
depth of the silo is twenty-five or thirty
feet. They then I'LL thi silo in the usual
winter, feed down to the top of the par
tition. and then during the remainder az
the winter feed on one side of the yoarti-
ton only, leaving the other stand. The
s,su al coating forms over the top and the
summer comes and the pastures grow
scant, they feed out of the other COM
partment after removing the moulded top
layer. The advantage from this Is that a
smaller feeding surface Is secured and
before 1t can be consumed. The needs
are less in summer. and during the hot
weather fermentation II more rapid.
Hence. II the whole surface of a large
s'.so vas uScu 70 Actu II0uQ uu0eI THESE
circumstances. great deal of 1t would
be spoiled before 1t Is consumed, but, by
the partition plan. the exposed surface Il
reduced and the silage remains good an
til used.
An important part Of the problem OF
profitable livestock growing Is ec,nomi-
cal feeding. Some years. when feed Is
very cheap. the grower Of beef cattle, al
least. can afford to be a little lavish and
wasfeful. perhaps. but one year with an
other, the question OF cheap feed u es-
sential In the growing of NIL kinds Of
stock, and no means has yet been dis
covered by which as much good feed per
acre can be so cheaply saved AZ by the
use Of the silo. For the dairymar who
not only needs feed, but succulent feed
as well during the winter. and vino Il
also under the necessity Of providing
some supplementary feeding in most
years during the summer, the advan-
tages Of the siio are still greater. Pro-
rvessive farmers who have not yet Eiven
the subject much attention would dn
well to make 1t matter Of study. under
their own conditions The s1Io has ~
least this in it, favor, that, while, when