Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1912-08-28
HINTS BASED ON EXPERIENCE
SiIo Construction and Feed Preserva-
ton in Consideration

ton in Consideration
EDITOR CENSOR: | have fed silage
| for twenty-four winters, but never with
the satisfactory results that have fed
/ il the past winter. Last year | had
| built Gurler silo, on a circular cement
wall; 2x4's were stood up a foot apart
and hoped with half inch spruce boards,
and these boards were used as a lining,
and half inch boards sawn into strips
were used as lath, and good coat of
! cement lime and hair was applied and
/ had perfect silo i4x36 feet and hold
/ ing hundred tons after the siisge had
settled six feet. The cost for material
was about 5000; for labor about SIS.
Would l build this way again? No.
! Instead of the half inch lumber and lath
1 would use steel lath upon which a
! good coat of cement were placed. But
it seems 20 me that the tile silo is con-
/ ing into vogue to the doing away of
wood as much as possible. What will
the tile cost for silo Ia feet inside
measurement and "a feet high, is the
question put to an Iowa tile com
pany's agent a while age. Reply STA
| +. O. b. here. What will the mason
charge to lay that tile? About SIT
per foot if the tile be set up edgewise,
/ if laid fiat little more. Wire is laid
for reinforcement and when one has a
tile siIo well pus up it will not rot nor
shrink, like wood, and ought to endure
| for agea.
Would put up a tile silo down on
the river where sand and gravel are
plenty? No | would build of concrete,
| because it would be cheaper. My silo
1 .. l,N -, -
closed by wires il cold weather | kept
my silo doors in place during the cold
weather to prevent silage from freez-
ing. had good tight roof put on
/ and covered with galvanized steel. The
under side of the steel | painted with
| black asphalt paint. Mr.. Hardware
Anderson declares steel roof begins
to rust out on the under side and so
paint all nv steel roofing that way
BY the way, | like that standing seam
| steel roofing. / think in the future |
will have il put on over the shingles
Its cost is about So Is square at pre-
sent, and laid on the roof it should cost
the farmer about four dollars per
square, or a little more. Steel roofs
are seldom struck by lightning and that
was the reason put steelroof on my
sio.
At Hudson roundup institute last
year valuable paper was read by E.
Nordman of Polar. 1t was an unpre-
tentious paper and yet one bound to
revoluntionize the feeding of dairy cows
wherever Indian corn can be profitably
grown. That paper was worth millions
to the dairy industry Of America and
yet | can give the gist Of it in four
| lines: The farmers of northern Wis
eonsin are feeding their mich cows
from 30 to 60 pounds Of corn silage
/ daily, together with alfalfa or clover
| hay, and find they do as well as wkea
4 fed expensive mill feeds. They use
flint corn, which up there contains three
or four per cent of protein more than
! ordinary. corn" Until this winter
have never had ensilage enough to give
the cows all wished to, Fer months
, last winter my 80 cows pretty nearly
lived on s!lsge snd three pounds OF
, cottonseed. meal to each COW and a
bundle of oats apiece, and yet they
gave rue over $3.50 in milk and cream
for April. On May day | let them on
the rye, which is a mistake perhaps,
but the barn was almost empty. After
a week they were willing to eat little
Stage and perhaps a pound of cotton
seed meal sprinkled upon it. hope
cottonseed will be plenty next year. |
have fed thousand bags of linseed
meal, more or less, hut the cottonseed
meal suits me better than any other
concentrate. ss.s77
am mixing alfalfa seed with the
clover and timothy seed and expect the
fellow who comes afte. me to have no
trouble in raising alfalfa. Already al
faifa is growing on many parts of the
farm, ! have a barrel Of quack grass
destroyer which coat me 81. | am
going to tap 1t soon. If 1t kills the
quack dea3 / will let you know: and if
it don't have only whisky barrel
left, and the experience which | will
give. By the way | believe quack
grass, ere long, will be classed with
our blessings in disguise. Plenty of cul-
tivatiQn kills it, and oh, what a lot of
humus it gives the soil, and what big
corn grows where it once grew. Down
in New England, last month, they told
me witch grass is TO them great bless
ing and if they didn't have that they
could not grow any hay crop on their
poor gravelly soil. When we farm on
intensive plan we will welcome quack
grass.
1t is nearly time to fill the silos, and
may | say word about that job learned
by long experience. Better have
good size cutter. A sixteen-inch Smalley
is very satisfactory to me, much better
than the old twelve inch without NOV
ing platform. Use coal for steam en-
CINE power; wood is too dangerous.
Silo filling is very hard work, so feed
the men well, and work exactly ten
hours and keep the knives sharp, filing
every hour with 8 long heavy file. After
the first load is run through stop the
cutter and tighten all the bolts well
which hold the knives Use plenty of
oil on the bearings and chains. Have
plenty of help. The engineer is high
priced help and must be kept at work
like steam better than gasoline power.
Have three barrels Of water and pals
in case of fire. Hang half a dozen
gunny bags in the water to fight fire
with. Have a spray of water playing
upon the silage somewhere in its jour
ney into the silo. 1t never does harm
and may do great good. Have the silo
roof seven feet high in center, then
silo can be filled to top Of walls. Keep
silage highest next to walls. Wet down
heavily at last and begin feeding at
once if the stock will eat it.
c. V. PORTER
Said or Written TO the Censor
Abe KalYestran, Avalanche: cone