The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-07-15


2. It will enable you to keep twice
as many cows on the same amount OF
land.
8. 1t will enable you to provide
feed that will be relished throughout
the year, as much as grass during the
month of June.
During my trip last summer
through the eastern dairy states no
one thing impressed me with so much
importance as the fact that on almost
every farm one or more silos were
found. In many of the dairy regions
it was no uncommon thing to see farm
after farm with two or three we'll
filled silos. In fact, the silo there is
considered of such Importance that
many farmers would be about as much
inclined to dairy without cows as with
out a well-flled silo.
| firmly believe the day is not very
distant when every progressive farm
er in the Palouse country will find 1t
to his advantage to have a silo to
help him solve the problem of pro-
viding a cheap and abundant supply
of feed for his cows.
Here in the Palouse country, this
question of providing silage for dairy
stock is certainly of vital Importance.
Our pasture season is comparatively
short we need to provide an abun-
dance of succulent feed to use not
only during the winter months, but
during the hot dry months of late
summer and early fall, when the
pastures begin to look brown and
dry.
It is then that one needs to see to
it that his COWS are getting balanced
ration in order that the flow of milk
be kept up. While there are nu-
merous crops that can be used for the
silo, corn is much to be preferred in
this country because it supplies the
constituents in which many OF the
other crops are deficient. 1t has been
fully demonstrated that corn will ma
ture here sufficiently to make good
ensilage and this feed with clover or
alfalfa makes we'll balanced ration.
In view of the Importance of the
silage question to the dairy farmer,
the following from an article by q. nj.
Adams will be of interest:
"Grass is the ideal food for cheap
milk production. The evolution of
the silo has taken place in dairying
regions where the winter season Is
long, and is the result of trying to
counterfeit grass by preserving for
age crops in a succulent condition.
'The fundamental principle upon
which silage making is based is the
exclusion of air. If this is done the
gases arising from fermentation seem
to preserve the silage by the proven
ton of fungus and moulds.
"The first silos were pits in the
ground, but as it became evident that
pressure must be had, to exclude air,
and that to get this pressure depth
was required, the silO has gradually
come to be built above ground. The
old type was square, but as the SIDES
spring out upon pressure, allowing
the corners to become aired and spoil,
the corners were filled in and finally
the round type was evolved.
Modern silos may be divided into
four classes. First, stave silos, which
are usually factory made and are
shipped to the farm ready for cree
ton. Second, steel silos, which are
also factory made and ready for cree
ton Third, carpenter-built s1los,,
made on the farm by banding and
sheathing upright studding with lay
ers of thin lumber. Fourth, reinforced
concrete, brick, stone or tile s1los,
built on the farm. The comparative
cost varies largely with the locality.
number of satisfactory types OF
carpenter-built silos were formerly
used. but the recent advance in prices
of lumber makes their use less prac-
ticable. The majority of successful
silos in use today are factory-made
stave silos, bound with steel hoops.
In their favor it may be said the cost
of erecting is small, they are compare
lively cheap and they can be moved