Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1912-01-02
The Other View of the slIo.

have been reader of the Tribune
Farmer many years and think 1t one of
best, may say the best, of number of
periodicals have had the privilege of
reading. Its regular correspondents
seem like familiar friends. am only q
small farmer, and an article in the issue
of October 13, ''Is the Silo ProfitableP"
would not reach or interest me only for
the fact that there are other farmers like
myself who cannot afford the silo, not
only because of the expense Of construc-
tion but of filling 1t from year to year.
So take the liberty, for my own and
others encouragement, to note point
the writer has overlooked.
He states that an acre of silage is
worth four acres of average grass. This
may be true, but he has not reckoned on
the comparative cost of the two prod
ucts. The four acres of "average grass"
has cost nothing for ploughing and cul-
tivating for from one to five years pre-
sumably, and the cost of harvesting is
simple compared with the corn. The
one acre for corn has to be every year
ploughed, pulverized, fertilized, culti-
vated, ETC., before it ia ready for harvest
ing and filling the silo. am not pre-.
pared to estimate either the cost of seed
and fertilizer or that of the labor re-
auired, both of man and teams; but sup
pose the four acres of grass land had an
equal amount a year of fertilizer in the
shape of balanced top dressing applied,
or even one acre, for the sake of COM
parison, how would results compare as
to the value of the product, carefully
estimating and comparing all expenses,
including labor? Or, on the other hand,
suppose the acre of corn was treated as
the acre of grass land-to no fertilizer
and no extra labor?
But there is another phase of the SUBJ
iect to the writer, who has found by ex-
perience that we'll cured corn fodder
compares as favorably with silage as
we'll cured hay with green grass, and
possibly more so, as in the process OF
ferme eutation, whether vinous or acetic,
some of the sugar and albumen is de.
stroyed. I have emphasized the "well
cured" as so many farmers seem not to
realize the necessity OF painstaking
treatment for corn fodder, as well as for
hay, and that the corn fodder is liable to
greater damage by wetting than hay.
l would not presume to disparage the
silo; but for those of US who do not
aspire to great results there Is still op-
portunity to improve our methods and
increase the yearly profit.
The late George NJ. Clark OF Higga-
mum, Conn, demonstrated and gave the
facts to the public that hay can be raised
by using balanced top-dressing at one
half the cost of silage. What he has &C
complished others can do.
His test experiment covered period
of seventeen years. continuous cropping
of three. e.quarters Of an acre 81 ordinary
land. Two, and sometimes three, crops
were harvested in season; balanced
top dressing was applied before each
cropping. The first yield would be four
or ave tons, the second two or three,
etc. In the seventeen years more than
one hundred tons of hay was taken from
the three.quarters of an acre.
Thus 1t seems plain that fertilizer and
labor properly applied will secure
profitable harvest even from land in hay.
1t is a significant fact that sixty tons OF
silage which it has taken four or five
acres of corn land to produce will con-
sist Of Is or so per cent water. Four or
five acres of the same kind of land will
be easily made to produce sixteen to
twenty tons of first class hay, with
proper fertilizing with balanced top
dressing, and no danger by frost. Which
will show the greater profit on time and
money e1pended?-L. c. Shaw, West
Parsonsfield, Me-, in Tribune Farmer.