The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1913-03-27
THE BILLION DOLLAR WASTE.

The greatest waste in any single
industry 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 one and,
a half billion dollars. In a ripe corn.
plant 60 per cent of the feed value
is contained in the kernals and 40,
per cent in the stalk and leaves:
With the grain worth one and a half
billion dollars, the feed value of the
rest of the crop is a billion dollars.
AT least 80 per cent of the feed
value of the stalk is lost under the
present system of farm management
"a waste with this crop alone of
almost a billion dollars yearly. No
other business but farming could
stand such an enormous loss.
In the New England and the Mid.
die States most of the stalks are.
saved as fodder, and there are many
silos, but with the damage from
W%eathering, the waste in handling
and the loss in d~igestibility' from dry
ing, 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, COM
paratively 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. Fire.
quently the death of stock pastured
in the stalk fields makes a loss. that
far exceed the returns from the feed.
Contrast this waste by the corn
grower with the practices of large
business organizations. For a
the great packing houses have sold
dressed meat for less than they have
paid for the live weight of the ami
mails.
Yet every year these packing
houses return millions of dollars
profit because they utilize to the full
est extent the value of their by-pro-
ducts. The Standard Oil Company
takes crude oil in to it's refining
plant, puts it through costly process
ses, using apparatus that require an
outlay of millions, pays the freight
re the kerosene and gaso-
line direct to consumers at a lower
rate than is asked for mineral water,
where the only expense is to run the
water through a pipe from the spring
pOleiS. AZ IN odl1S. IllllG Tile
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 larg-
est portion of the feed value OF his
entire crop, grain and forage. The
sllage 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 weat-
her, when it is raining, or in times
of extreme drouth and not winds.
Silage is good, fed daily, both in
winter and sumner. When grass is
ready insthe spring, the feed that re-
mains in1the silo can be covered and
will keep we'll until needed when the
summer drouth comes. Silage furn-,
ishes a green, ,succulent, appetizing
feed through, the winter, the same as
grass through the summer. It keeps
the animals system in as good con-
dition as when the stock is on gooo
pasture, and feeds given with it are
better digested.
Corn makes the best silage, Kafir
corn, Milo and sorghum follow, their
value being in the order mentioned,
Green pea vines, huSkS and cObs from
the canning factories make good ma
terial to put in the silo. In contin-
uous rainy weather alfalfa, clover
and other hay crops may be saved in
the silo.
The vast dry farming section of
the Southwest will be as thickly set
tied with comfortable farm homes
as is the northern corr belt when
ever stock raising, drouth-resistant
forage crops and the silo are adopt
ed, instead of exclusive grain farm
ing. Every live stock growing dis
trict in the United States needs the
silo. The general use of the silo
will make the high-priced small
farms of the corn belt profitable
growers, as well as finishers Of cat
tie and sheep.
HI. M. COTTRELL.