The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-04-26
THE sILO QUESTION.
GROWING BELIEF IN THE VALUE OF
GOOD SlLAGE.

For This Style-SiIage as Summer
Feed-its Keeping Qualities.
In letter printed in Hoard's Dairy
man John Gould of Ohio has the fol-
lowing to say of silos and silage:
Silo building in New York state may
now be set down as a sort of rage. 1t
is estimated that the number of silos
was doubled in the past year in the
state, and the institute that did not
have its corn silo talk was rare eX-
ception. The drought last year showed
the value of silage as never before,
and how to build and fill was the one
great question. 1t is hard to say just
what is the present status of the round
and square silo. The men with a good
square or eight square silo, with round
ed corners, are satisfied that they have
the best, but there is some complaint
about the stave silos, hoops growing
longer in the heat of summer and slaves
shrinking and warping and not quite
matching again, and some getting
shaky and falling down, and others
filling to the letter the wants and ex-
pectations Of their owners.
All are admitting as never before the
necessity of having the silo absolutely
alrprOof on sides and bottom, and 10
get this the stave silo must be carefully
built and kept from shrinking out in
dry weather. To our mind, the best
round silo we saw was of a new pat
tern, round and with wooden hoops
These hoops were made by springing
five s and 6 inch elm boards into Il
hoop the size Of the silo wanted and
tapping joints until the hoop was made
up OF four thicknesses Of these boards,
we'll nailed, with the splicing we'll lap
ped. The nine hoops were elevated on
frame to their respective places, and
the outside cover was put on, backing
it with heavy building paper. The silo
was then lined up inside with very mar
row 2A inch Georgia pine flooring.
The paper was expected to spring away
from the outsiding and thus really
form a double air space. 1t would be
impossible for the hoops to expand or
contract, and the lining would be as
perfectly kept in place as on the walls
of the square silo. for it is a peculiar
ity of Georgia pine to shrink and swell
very little if any on silo wall
1t was the experience of these men
that not only were these hoops cheap
er than iron ones, but they did not give
or contract, and the inside ceiling was
always as tight as when built and the
firm mailing of inside and outside
walls made them rigid and stable and
impossible to rack or warp out Of shape.
as the iron hoped silo is so liable to do
without constant attention in the sum-
mer. Thoroughly protected from the
weather, the hoops would be very last
ing. and it looks to a fellow up a tree
as if this wooden hoop might be a hint
of a coming solution of the tub or stave
silo problem.
There is no doubt that the summer
silo is on trial and is to be put through
it's PAGES in solving the knotty problem
of What shall | summer soil with?
Every man whom | have met the past
winter who has tried silage soiling is
wonderfully confident that the corn
crop raised year in advance and put
into a small, deep silo and kept over to
the following summer is the long look
ed for answer. The usual sOiling crop
is wholly dependent upon the season.
A dry or unfavorable season makes it's
mark upon the catch crops, and, as
was the case last season, the alfalfa
was the only early and midsummer
crop that amounted to anything in sup
plying a dairy.
The corn crop that was planted on
good ground with a liberal supply OF
decaying humus and frequently cult
waited as shallow as possible pulled
through and made fine stand, and on
hundreds Of dairy farms it was the
only crop that did pull through, and by
it the farmer was enabled to winter his
dairy. Here comes in the value of the
summer silo. A good year fills the silo
for the next summers drought and in
sures the man against the fearful dry
ing of the COWS and the big grain bills
that wipe out all profit. There is no
way man can raise SO much. harvest
so expeditiously and cheaply and pre-
serve SO perfectly as to grow corn
crop and silo it. SO far, the testimony
is that no crop feeds so we'll in the sum-
mer and so uniformly as does good ST.
lage and with such an economy OF
grain feeding.
Where the silo is built with a rather
small diameter so to feed off quite a
depth each day there was little COM
plant of silage being damaged in hot
weather, and no seeming trouble if the
surface was sprinkled with pail OF