The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-07-01
THE VALUE OF THE sILo.
by G. wv. Jones, of MISSOURI.

| skilled help, built a concrete Silo 10
| feet in diameter and 40 feet in height
We have filled this silo four times
and we have had splendid results.
The silo stands as perfect as when
| built and it is believed would endure
for centuries with but little repair
The silo has no roof and when we fill
it we pile on top all that will lay on.
Indeed, this year we placed some
weather boarding on top and thus
gained several tons of silage. Filled
! in this manner it will hold 20 tons.
Last year it took just ten acres of
drilled corn and COW peas to fill it.
| The 200 tons of silage from this ten
acres was equivalent to 70 tons of
| timothy hay, which at So a ton would
| be $3.50, or to $56 an acre for the
silage; and at one and one-half tons
to the acre-a large crop for Missouri
it would require 40 acres to grow
the hay.
This ten acres of silage was the nu-
TRENT equivalent of 1,420 bushels of
corn, which at 60 cents bushel would
be $3.50, or $85 an acre. 1t would
require 35 acres of ground to produce
it at 40 bushels to the acre. Again,
this silage crop equaled in value SO
tons of bran, which at the present
value would be $1,40O, $140 for each
acre. Once more, this ten acre silage
crop was the equivalent of As tons of
cottonseed meal, which at $50 per
ton equaled $1,450, or $145 an acre
for silage.
A farmer adjoining me owning an
80-acre farm wished to buy 20 acres
from me, but, | advised him to put
up a silo and he would have larger
return form his 80 acres than he
could get from the 100; however, he
has not done it. Sometimes a Mis-
sourian requires a good deal of ''show-
ing"
These are some of the values of
silage:
1. 1t stores well. When properly
housed it will keep with less wastage
than corn or oats in the crib or hay
in the stack 1t also keeps longer
2. 1t is harvested when corn, the
greatest food plant that grows, has
reached it's utmost development.
When nature can put no more into it
and before she claims anything back
out of it, then it is cut and stored and
sealed for future use. 1t is put away
in it's own juices and is SO soft that
even the cob is thoroughly masticated
and thus digestion is easy and most
complete.
8. Cows eat it greedily. 1.-THE proof
of the pudding is in the eating of it"
4. 1t corresponds to the nature of
the COW. 1t is a bulk feed. Cows
have big stomachs. They were made
for grass. The corn plant is big
grass and, cut up fine for her in the
form of silage, it makes her winter
ration most like her summer blue
grass Concentrated, condensed feeds
contract the stomach and must work
very radical REIMBURSEMENT of the
| internal COW, but concentrated feeds
can be fed with great advantage
mixed with the bulkier silage.
g. There is absolutely no wastage
in feeding when judiciously fed
feed my COWS from 40 to so pounds
of silage each daily, and they click
the platter clean"
6. There is practically no waste in
harvesting; the stalk, the blade, the
grain, the cob, the tassels, are all
utilized. The usual method is to save
| the ear and largely waste the rest
of the plant
7. 1t is the best solution of the
problem for the drouth and short
pastures of summer. 1t is fine sub
stitute for bare pastures, and the
| farmer forearmed with a few acres
of corn in his silo is safeguarded
against drought.
For these and many other reasons,
| especially commend the silo to dali
rymen and also to farmers on small
| farms. 1t seems to me an absolute