The Dickinson press., 1913-06-07
The Billion Dollar Waste

Inc Billion Dollar Waste
The greatest waste in any single in
dustry in this country is made with the
corn crop. The grain of the annual
corn crop of the United States is worth
on the farms n and a half billion
dollars. In a ripe corn plant 90 per cent
of the feed value is contained in the
kernels and 40 per cent in the stalk
and leaves. With the grain worth one
and n half billion dollars, the feed
value of the rest of the crop is a bill
lion dollars. At least go per cent OF
the feed value of the stock is lost under
almost a billion dollars yearly. No
other business but farming could stand
such an enormous loss.
In the New England and the Middle
states most of the stalks are saved as
fodder, and there are many silos, but
with the damage from weathering, the
waste in handling and the loss indiges-
tibility from drying, the farmers are
very far from utilizing the full feed
value of the corn stalk. In the corn
belt. where the bulk of the crop is
raised, comparatively few corn growers
harvest the stalks. and the only returns
most of them secure from the forage is
by pasturing the dead stalks in the cold
and storms Of winter. frequently the
death of stock pastured in the stock
fields makes a loss that far excels
the returns from the feed.
. Contrast this waste..by the corn grow
er with the practices Of large business
organizations. For years the great pack
ing houses have sold dressed meat for
less than they have paid for the live
weight of the animals.
Yet every year these packing houses
return millions of dollars profit because
they utilize to the fullest extent the
value of their by products. The Stan.
dard Oil Co. takes crude oil into its re-
fning plants puts it through costly pro-
cesses, using apparatus that requires an
outlay of millions. pays the freight to
and delivers the kerosene and gasoline
direct to consumers at a lower rate
than is asked for mineral water, where
the only expense is to rln the water
through a pipe from the spring into a
bottle. At the same time the corn
growers are wasting most of 40 per cent
of the feed value of over one hundred
million acres of corn.
The silo provides the corn grower
with the means for utilizing the largest
proportion of the feed value of his en-
tire crop, grain and forage. The silage
can be kept for days, months or years,
or feeding may begin as soon as filling
the silo is completed. The silo can be
filled in good weather, when it is
raining, or in times of extreme drouth
and hot winds. Silage is good, fed
daily. both in winter and summer.
When grass is ready in the spring, the
feed that remains in the silo can be
covered and will keep well until needed
when the summer drouth comes. -Silaee
furnishes a green. %succulent, appetiz-
ing feed through the winter, the same
as grass through the summer 1t keeps
the animals system in as good condit-
ion as when the stock is in good pas
ture, and feeds given with it are better
digested.
Corn makes the best silage, Kafir
corn, Milo and sorgum follow, their
value being in the order mentioned.
Green pea vines. husks and cobs from
the canning factories make good mater
ial to put in the 'silo, In continuous
rainy weather alfalfa, clover and other
hay crops may be saved in the silo.
The vast dry farming sections of the
southwest will be as thickly settled
with comfortable farm homes as is the
northern cor belt whenever stock rails
ing, drouth resistant forage crops and
the silo are adopted, instead of excIus-
i've grain farming. Every live stock
growing district in the United States
needs a silo. The general use of the
silo will make the high priced small
farms of the corn belt profitable grow
ers, as we'll as fnishers of cattle and
sheep. H. M. Cottrell.
Dunn County News
H. R. Young is trying his hand at
work in Boulder. Mont