The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-02-28

the farmer where he was wasting
money. They have helped him lop off
a part of grain production cost; they
have shown him how to produce more
wool at lower cost. The government
experts turned an additional S5,000,-
900 into the pockets Of farmers last
year by directing the culling of all
poultry flocks. Physically unfit
fowls were beheaded. Every hen that
laid less than 200 eggs a year was
denied her right to existence. AS a
result last year the poultry return
reached a new high record of $780,
100000, triple the mark of four years
previous. But that is another story.
This story concerns pit silos, the
development of which is deemed an
important factor in the future of
western Canada where dairying is
steadily on the rise.
In the general survey Of agricul-
tural production costs it was foundl
that many farmers were handicapped
in the establishment of stone and
metal silos. The cost, in many cases,
was beyond the land holder. New
settlers in the mixed farming regions
of the prairie provinces who wished to
conserve their funds and expand on a
sound, safe basis sometimes hesitated
to build siIos.
But the silos were need more than
ever, for the sunflower had just
come into great favor in western
Canada as a Silo crop. Last autumn
millions of sunflowers fell before the
knives of mowers. 1t was a gaudy
harvest that sprauled out over i'm
mense areas- Fields Of twenty and
fifty acres were common. The saw
tooth knives of moving machines
brought the miniature forests tum-
bling to earth in golden w1ndrows.
Sudden Transformation of the sun
flower from a noxious weed into an
important farm crop found silo IA
cilities quite inadequate. It was then
that the experts began search for the
practical pit silo. The Alberta de-
partment of agriculture experiment
ed with two different types. One
was a trench silo, 25 feet long by IL
feet wide by 10 feet deep, studded
with tamarac posts edged on the sides
and covered with posts, straw and
earth to keep out the frost. The
other was an entirely open one,
straight on two sides and sloped on
two sides. The experience of the de-
/ partment led to the conclusion that
this type of silo should be sloped on
all sides.
"The pit silo," says an announce
ment of the department, has three
great advantages. 1t costs practi-
cally nothing but the labor required
to build it. 1t saves leakage. The
5 silage does not freeze solid as is the
. ase with other types of silos.
: Frank Leavitt, a well known Cana
: dian farmer living at Glenwoodville,
Alta, in advising the department OF
agriculture of the great popularity OF
the pit silo in his district, said that
he had grown three acres Of sun
flowers and built a silo at a cost oi
SGT, which included liberal allowance
for labor.
81 had fully expected to erect /;
2 stone silo, but the cost seemed too
W great. So / suddenly decided to dis
one. / plowed and scraped a trench
n 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep Thel
l spread a thin layer of cut straw OF
K the bottom and sides, just enough t
IL keep ensilage clean.
N "In filling l put one man in the pi
for spreading ensilage, with a lad o.
ID a good saddle horse for tramping.
certainly kept the lad and horse busy
n Here let me say tramping is a secre
ne of silage keeping.
ra after the ensilage was al In.
ng covered it with eight inches of yer
ne wet straw, then put the boy and hors
Oh on and thoroughly tramped until a
~ was a solid mass. This straw was tn
only covering. On Nov. 10 the p
Z. was opened and continuous feedin
since has revealed the fact that nj
=, one pond of ensilage was spoiled. II
n milk cows are giving equal the flo
nm they did while on green pasture, al
90 the dry cattle are gaining every 'da.
Hy The entire cost of my pit silo VIZ
.ee three days labor, n man and tear
we a total of $63.60.
ct "ThiE was only sits 2-3 per t
and more than one-half Of it repr
res sents labor that any farm hand G.
er, do.
na SIN the face of these facts a farm
could not afford TO haul hay mo
than five miles if it were given to hi
~ all cut and punched.
'ss '@Thes pit silo has ONE advantag
over AL Others There Is no cost OF