The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-08-06
Agricultural Experts Say Plen-
ty ROughness to Feed Stock.
SALVATION is IN SILOS
SilOS Can Be Constructed After
Corn Has Been Cut.
Even Dry Fodder Makes Good
Silage by Using Water.


were sold in Kansas City in the last
two days Most of them were from
Kansas aud they were rushed to mar
ket on account of the drouth. Let this
drain keep up just a few days longer
at this rate and it will take five years
for Kansas farms to be restocked. -
said James A Stewart, general pas
senger agent of the Rock Island
Lines, this morning. Mr.. Stewart re-
turned last night after spending a day
on the Rock Islands stIage special
we are trying to stop this stam-
pede among the farmers" continued
Mr.. Stewart. "Of course it is not pos
slble for the farmers this year to feed
anything like as many cattle, or even
to simply carry over through the fall
and winter, as many as under normal
circumstances, but q good many have
become unduIy alarmed. They are
unloading more of their stock than
they need to, and they are dumping
II into a deprecated market, and later
when they come to restock their farms
they will find they are buying in a
very high priced market-a market
due to a shortage of stock animals -
When Mr.. Stewart says that some
farmers are unduly alarmed he re-
fers to those who do not know the
value of silos-who do not know
Is cut and that the dry stalks can be
softened and freshened and made into
silage by wetting it down as it goes
into the silo- Corn as a grain crop is
a failure, but as a rough feed it is
not.
Silage From Dry Fodder.
One farmer at Goodland last year
cut his corn in the fall and left it i'll
the shock until December and then
made it into silage by the use of water
and got good results This experience
is being related along with many 9TH
ers by the experts on the silage spe-
cial, to let the farmer without a silo
and who has been caught by the i
drought this year. knoH-that- he still
has time to build a silo. 1t is the
that if every bit of corn fodder in the
state were put into silOs-eYen silos
built long after the corn was cut-thdt
all the cattle in the state could be car
ried through the winter, and that very |
few. if any at all need be rushed to a |
low market.
The Rock Island officials are feeling !
greatly encouraged on account of the |
enthusiastic response given their ef- |
forts by the farmers over the state. |
With the temperature up to 10 de- i
grees, farmers are turning out to meet
the special wherever it stops. And /
they are there to learn They seem
greedy for every word of the lectures, /
try to get the most out of every min
ute the special is with them.
That the advice given is valued was
illustrated yesterday when a farmer
from Goodland was met.
He Took Advice.
Met your wheat special two years
ago last July" he explained, and
decided you fellows were right and
when I got home I said to the boys
We're going to raise wheat the way
those fellows say for US to, and we
are going to begin tomorrow What's
the use in starting SO soon-in July
to raise next years wheat?' the boys
asked, but L simply said we were go
ing to do the way the wheat special
professors said, and the next morning
We began plOwing and plowing seyen
inches deep, and after that we kept
the ground soft by narrowing it
SO it would soak up and hold moisture,
and next year my crop averaged 81 y
bushels to the acre. My neighbor
across the road, who did things the
ol0 way, got just 13 bushels to the
acre, so now 1 am here to be told
about the siIage proposition, and am
going to do as I am told
When 500 farmers drive into town
and stand in 107 degrees of heat for
three-quarters of an hour to hear a
talk about silos it is pretty certain that
they are mighty interested in that
subject" continued Mr.. Stewart. 1T
W
shade and 500 farmers And over in
a grove of trees by the station were
thirty-two motor cars and a number
Of carriages It's a thrifty, optimistic
lot of people that live near Mankato.
even though it has rained only
mighty few times there this summer,
and then only in fractions.
SiIo Saved $4,000.
But Jewell and Smith county
farmers learned that even though the
dry weather is cutting down the Yields
of their crops there is salvation in the
silo. In fact if the 'sfrage special /
which is touring Kansas this week, had
a sIogan-but ii hasn't; no time to
be Salvation in the Silo.' The live
stock in Kansas will not suffer, this
winter, the Agricultural college ex-
perts say, if every bit of feed grown
this year is stored safely in a silo of
some kind-any kind.
Many farmers already know that
They have proved it. And to hear
some of these farmers talk you would
be sure that they thought more of
their SilOs than they do of their fami-
lies. But of course they don't; it's
Just their enthusiasm. There is DR..
l. A. Golden at Smith Center, for ex-
ample. He put forty acres of feed
into Silo last tfaII-twenty-three acres
Of corn. twelve acres of cane and five
Of Kaffir. Forty yearling steers and
$50 head of calves were fed this silage.
The yearlings made an average gain
Of 153 pounds in four months when
fed that silage. DR.. Golden had been
in former years in taking
them through the winter without any
gain The forty acres of feed used
would not have been worth more than
Of it this feed was worth 50. 400, Dr.
Golden says"