Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1914-10-21
Number and arrangements OF men en-
lloyed IN nlllna sLlna by Narlnla NAH


The relative merits of these meth
DDS depend upon the conditions pre-
vailing on each farm. The best meth.
cd is that in which the working force
is moss evenly balanced, that is, where
all arc working continuously. In the
majority of cases in which the cost
rose to an unduly high figure, a poor
arrangement of the help was found
to be chiefly responsible for the extra
expense. It is not necessary to rush
men and teams 10 their fullest extent
in order to get the work done cheaply.
If all are working continuously and
no one hindered by the others, econ
omy will result. Two or three men
and teams waiting to unload at the
cutter or to load in the field represent
loss of valuable time.
The factor that SHOULD control the
size Of the crew is the capacity Of
the silage cutter. on one farm. for
example, on which the cost of filling
the silo was found to be 80 cents a
ton, IA men we're employed. The
work could have been done Just as
well with ten, for as much silage
would have been cut in the same time
If there had been only two men in
stead of four, pitching on the field;
three men instead of four hauling with
teams, and one man instead Of two
in the silo. Deducting the wages Of
the four men and one team that were
not needed, would lower the cost of
filling at this place from so to GA
cents a ton. In this case the cutter
was of medium size. With the prop.
er arrangement of help, such a cutter
may be used almost as economically
as a larger one, but most farmers wish
to push the filling through as fast as
possible and prefer therefore when
ever possible to use a large sized cut
ter.
The FIVE men who filled their silos
with the greatest economy used blow
ers to elevate the silage instead of the
slat carrier. The chief objection to
the blower is that 1t takes so much
power to run it, but as a matter of
fact, it was found that the power used
on these farms would have been in
most cases, quite sufficient to han
die the largest machines; and in only
one case was there too little power
to run a medium-sized blower. Where
a blower is used care should
be taken to have the pipe stand as
nearly perpendicular as possible. In
one case where the cutter was set too
far from the silo and the pipe at an
angle Of 80 degrees from the perpen-
dicular, a - horsepower engine could
not handle the cutter satisfactorily
when it was operated to anything like
its full capacity. After the owner
changed the position of the cutter, put
ting it close to the silo and thus max
ing the pipe more nearly perpendicu-
lar no more difficulty was experienced
with clogging.
The details Of this investigation
have been published as Farmers Bull
letin No. 292 under the title of Cost
of Filling Silos" AS long as the de-
partment's supply lasts this bulletin
will be sent free on request to the
Division Of Publications, United States
Department OF Agriculture, Washing
ton, d. c. Further information in re-
gard to the construction of silos, the
feeding of silage to farm animals and
kindred subjects is contained in Farm
ers' Bulletin No. 80. ''Sllos and silage,i
and Farmers Bulletins Nos. 1872, 556
and SIS.