The Florida agriculturist., 1905-12-27

Il
don't know. | have seen some corn
that would require ten acres to make
one ton of ensilage; again l have seen
corn that one acre would make ten
tons. On good, +well-prepared land,
YOU should expect anywhere from q
to 9. tons per acre. Sorghum will 'dO.
a:iittIe. bit better. than this under the
: same conditiOHs l have grown 24
5ahs per acre tef sorghum in OIfe sea-
sonson t1fe same piece Of. land. Eigh-
teen tons the first; cutting. and six the
second q might say that l have done
this two YEARS in succession. 1t would
LerIaps interest some of you to know
that we also grew thirteen tons of
fslpe during the winter time on this
jsame acre of land. 1 think 1 hear
some of you asking what did you put
on that land? | will not go into de-
tails. as to how | treated this land.
but suffice it to say. that | thought it
was worth feeding and l fed it: and
why could | not afford to feed it.
when two acres of such land would
feed my twelve head of cows for six
months?
The cost per ton of ensilage will
depend upon a good many things; the
strength of your land; how far you
have to haul the crop: the kind of
machinery and facilities you have for
handling it. 1t is usually estimated
TO cost anywhere from 81 to S1.50 per
ton. No definite instructions can be
given as how to plant your crop for
the best results; about all l can tell
you is to plant Just as thick as it will
stand. On the piece of ground men
toned above it was planted so thick
that man could get all he could carry
from about three feet of the row. On
ordinary land. of course. it would have
to he much thinner than this. For
sorghum | would suggest one stalk
every two or three inches. for corn one
stalk every twelve or fifteen inches.
Cut the corn just as soon as the
grain begins to harden; sorghum can
he allowed to stand for some time
after tie seeds begin to ripen up be
fore it will injure. This is one ad-
vantage that sorghum has over corn
for the silO.
Now Il few remarks in regard to
filing Keep the edges well packed
by having Il man walk around keeping
one foot next to the boards while
he is pulling the cut stuff from the
center toward the walls The middle
will usually take care of itself. be
carSe the weight of the falling silage
will keep it more or less packed IF
there should he any dead or dried
lenyes rSe some water. if the quantity
of dried or dead leaves is quite large
then he sure that yOu usa enough
water ,S said before. it is better TO
l'ave too o>much water than not enough
The danger of not having enough
water is that the heat from the fer
entatiOn has Il tendency to dry out
the material and if there is not enough
. water to last through this heating pro-
cess dry rot sets in and SpOiIS all of
that part which is not moist enough
The last tine ] filed my silO. | kept
wafer rynEing on the carrier all the
time. The reason for this was that
the corn had fired near the ground
and ! was afraid there was not enough
water in the corn to prevent spelling
The silaGe was good next to- the
boards from within three feet of the
top TO the bottom. Where Won use
velvet beans. or cOWpeaS or even Sor-
ghum with corn there will usually be
enough water in these other crops to
save the. corn. If you have no way
of allowing water to run on by a
bose or something of that kind,