Mexico weekly ledger., 1914-12-24
]. II. o TALKED

$500 ahAN1 -
]. II. Smoot, one Of Audrain eoun-
ty's most progressive farmers, spoke
at Cant school house, Farmers and Pa
irons Day, last week on "Silos and
Silage." Mr.. Smoot is well informed
on this subject and made a most ex-
ceIlent address which Is given in fGll
as follows:
We are inclined to look upon the
silo as a new idea. In so far as we
Americans are concerned it is practi-
eally a new thing but history teaches
us that a thousand years and more
before the time of Christ it was in
common use in Egypt. The Romans
dug large pits in the ground along
their military roads, filled them with
green feed for their horses in time of
need.
They were crude affairs but they
served the purpose of preserving
green feed almost in its natural state
and that is the purpose Of the silo.
The silo came into pretty general
use about two hundred years ago in
Italy and from there spread to other
countries Of Europe The first silo of
which we have any authentic record
was built in this country about 1876.
During the first 20 years or so of it's
history in this country the idea took
root and grew very slowly but as
years went on new silos were built,
new and more extensive feeding ex-
periments were carried on until about
20 years ago we had a revival of in
terest in the silo question and from
that time to the present we have had
much interest among the farmers con
corning this much discussed and very
important problem but often misun-
derstood and abused idea. There have
been many different kinds of mater
ials used in silo construction, ranging
from the various kinds and types of
homemade affairs: the steel, the
wooden, stone, the various kinds of
piece affairs, such as brick, tile, con-
crete blocks, etc, to the one-piece SOL
id concrete which, it seems to the writ
er, as the last work in silo-construct-
ion. These low down temporary ST.
los are rapidly giving way to the tall
more permanent ones, many of
which are being built from 60 to 80
feet high. We are looking for some
thing that will not blow or burn down
and win keep the feed, and last. In
the solid concrete, it seems, we have
found it. Almost every grass or grain
that is commonly grown in this eoun-
try has been tried for silage with
more or less varying degrees of sue
cess.
1t is pretty generally conceded that
corn, sorghum, cane, kaffir corr and
milo maize are about the best silage
feeds in the order named or various
combinations of these such as corr
and cane, etc. The legumes, such as
eoweas or soybeans alone do not
make the best of silage though mix
ed with corr do fairly well. If the
legumes can be harvested and fed dry
with corn silage i. is the better plan
than t mix them in the silo. The hol-
low stemmed grains, like oats or
wheat are not extensively used for
silage; though a combination Of corr
and oats has been advocated and tried
out for dairy COWS with good success
Corn for silage should be dry enough
to put in the shock. II harvested at
this stage and some water little
danger Of getting too muchJ put on
it as it is put in the silo we should
have a feed good for any farm stock.
Silage was formerly cut too green,
making an acid, washy feed but If al
lowed to mature is good for even work
horses. Last year | fed silage to
horses and mules varying in age from
the weanling to the aged animal to
cattle from the calf TO the aged COW,
hogs of all ages and TO chickens in
quantities of all they would eat and
so far az | could detect with the best
Of results.
The work animals especially came