The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-11

tNttof JCAAl 1(OAHd " A1s dS pussy dC t@ switch engine building battery of silos and filling the two already con structed.
 It was the first time that ever got my mind to really thinking about the silo question. It is true that I had seen the tall round towers dotted here and there as I travelled over the state, but they meant nothing whatever to me and might just as well have been water towers.
 If you have ever seen a threshing machine at work. I mean the kind which perambulate over certain sec tions with engines and men, you know that while it is in action there is a. whole lot doing on the farm, for men are rushing to and fro and there is great excitement. for usually it's the crowning thing of the season.
 We'll, filling a big sflo is like unto 1t, for everything on the place goes jn run and there is hustle a plenty. Wagon loads of corn piled above the bodies were coming and going. There was a whirr of machinery and the song of the negroes from aloft as they trod down the silage which was emptied into the great reservoir.
 It takes hundreds of loads and the outputsof more than the average farm to load big silo like any one of the eight now standing at Dunnaway's and Lamberts in Qrrville. Ibelieve I real y first got Interested in cattle on my visit. for the two enterprising Dallas county farmers were just beginning to get good hold on the cattle game
 John Dunnaway had a fine herd of Jerseys and was shipping cream to Selma. Uncle Joe" Lambert had been in business for years in the adjoining county. Together they had got quite bunch of grazers and had laid the foundation of their lpure-bred Here lords. It was my first introduction to the white-faced type of meat producers and somehow ever since theY have had a charm for me.
 
 But. back to siloS The word means a pit to keep corn in. an underground granary It may be a hole dug in the earth, cavity in a rock, but now more commonly a warm, air-tight structure above ground, for the storing of green crops for future use in the state called ensilage. It has been said that many years ago. in Europe. stack of wet, green grass was covered by accident with earth.
 Many discoveries are the result of accident and I see no good reason to doubt the story. The surprise, how ever. came to the farmer, for when winter came the stack, by some means found that the grass was still green and juicy and that it was greatly rel ished by the cattle. It was the thing long wished for among cattle breeders and dairymen.
 It wasn't long before his neighbor farmers were digging pits ins the ground to keep feed green Such pits, of course, had to- be named, and so the word silo was applied to fit the case After bit it was found that there was a better way to preserve the green foods than to bury them in old mother earth. and so silos began to spring up over the land.
 K They are built of wood brick, stone cement and other materials and afe usually spherical in shape. The only silo in Birmingham of which I have personal Knowledge is the one at the plant of the Alabama Packing Con- pany, out on the Frisco between Aclpco and North Birmingham. and If I re- member correctly it is made from tile that appearance
 
 There may be- essauare silos. though do not recall ever haVing seen one It has been found that the round ones are the most satisfactory on account of the greater ease in packing the s1age more firmly and with greater regularity as to the layers. The tramp ing is very necessary part in filling them. for when properly done the re- suits will be very much more satisfac- tprY as the contents will then be sweet substantial and nutritious.
 l was tempted to write along this ! line on account of very excellent news item which came to my desk from the extension service of the co operative extension work of the Ala bama Polytechnic Institute and United states department of agriculture, J. F. Duggar. director. and Leslie Gilbert, agricultural editar. The bulletins is- sued from time to, time have been of I cal service to the farmers and cattle growers of the state
 Practically every experiment station in, the United States has reached the conclusion that silage is the most eco romical roughage for cattle. either heef or dairy. Every practical cattle man in this state, who has silo and with whom we have discussed the subject believes that the silo is neces- sary in order to make a profit from the cattle. So with the testimonies of these authorities the argument for silos would seem to be conclusive. 
 Mir. w. E. Elsberry Jr. near Mont eomery, put up cane silage this year Tor $1.s4 per ton. this including labor, rent of land. seed cost of preparation of the soil cultivation of the cron