The Portland daily press., 1898-11-23
ALAND OF sILos.

Results OF Long E1p6Eicuce AZ ID utAu~
ing Them-The Cornflelds of Ohio.
One of the editors Of The Rural New
Yorker has been recording in that jour
nal some impressions received during a
visit to Ohio, and among other Interests
ing items occur the following:
That part of the Western Reserve
which went through is a dairy coun-
try-the farmers shipping milk to
Cleveland or taking it to the cheese
factories which are scattered all over
the country. There are probably more
silos to the COW population in this re-
gion than in any other large area in
America. After long experience and
study farmers now seem to be building
square silo with curved corners to
prevent the spelling Of ensilage in the
corner angle. Many Of these silos have
been put in or outside Of old fashioned
barns-that is, barns built for the stor-
age of hay. saw one great barn built
when every COW required 800 cubic feet
or more to store her winters hay. The
man who built it said the barn and Gel
lar cost 81, 900. Since the silo has made
it unnecessary to feed great quantities
of hay, the mows are empty. All the
barn is good for now is to put COWS I'M
der. The owner said that if he had
known what he does now about ensilage
when that barn was built, he would be
over SO, 600 better off today. A long,
low building with a silo at one end,
costing possibly $1,000, would have
been better and handler than the pres
ent great barn. With one-quarter of the
capital he could have built barn of
equal cow capacity.
tried to learn what price was con-
sidered fair one for ensilage, but no
one ever has any to sell. One lot sold at
So. so ton, which was considered fair.
1t is estimated to require only one-sev
enth the space occupied by an equal
weight Of hay. OF course there are
some farmers who do not yet see the
value of ensilage. It seemed to be gen.
orally admitted, however, that farmers
who use ensilage and make winter milk,
have SO cheapened their product that
they are doing about as well as they did
in other days when milk brought more.
There are many tenant farms in this
part of Ohio. 1t is not customary in
this part Of the state to build silos on
tenant farms. This seems to mo to be a
mistake was told that In other places
silos on such farms paid we'll.
How these Ohio farmers do brag about
their corni We eastern folks do not be-
gin to understand what corn means to
dairy farmers on these rich western
Soils Even the silo men had left part
of their crop in the field after stuff1ng
the silos full. We got mixed up in talk
ing about yields, for bushel out there
means basketful of ears. For ensilage,
they plant mostly a Virginia white corn
which makes a great stalk. but rarely
natures the grain. In this late season,
considerable of the grain has hardened.
For grain, they plant a yellow dent
much like our Chester County Man,
moth. The corn found on different farms
varied quite a little, but seemed of
much the same general type. A local
miller told me how he selected two of
the finest ears from the grain Of each
farmer who patronized his mill. These
were finally sorted out to seven lots, or
IA ears. These were shelled, the grain
we'll mixed and planted. The following
year the best ears were selected for seed,
and he is now likly to secure an i'm
proved corn well adapted to the soil Of
his neighborhood.
In this country the usual plan is to
follow corn with oats. In the southern
and western parts of Ohio found the
oornfelds seeded to wheat, but on the
Western Reserve the cornfelds were
bare. Coming from my own little farm
where every cornfeld was three inches
deep with crimson clover, this seemed
to me like very wasteful practice.
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