Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1954-06-03

10. Apply first-aid promptly.
something is done to preven
further erosion" warns Charles
z. Ellington, assistant Extension
soil conServationist at the Uni
versity of Maryland.
The conservationist recon
mendS establishing temporary
erased waterways. He explains
that the job can be done in just
a few hours in most cases, if the
farmer is too busy with other
work to spend much time on the
waterways.
"The best way to establish a
temporary waterway is to spread
manure, lime and fertilizer, then
prepare seeded for the grass, -
he says. "But if it's not possible
to do such thorough job, pro
lection can be given by simply
walking along the eroded area
and spreading seed of some fast
growing plant by hand"
A number of Maryland farm.
ers who have used personalities
on grass silage indicate they are
going to try a new preservative
this year, according to John P.
Dietrich, University of Maryland
Extension dairyman.
The new preservative is sodium
metabisulfite.
"ThiS preservative is new to
most farmers, but actually it has
been in use for the past two or
three years" Dietrich says.
Sodium metabisulfite has been
used on the agricultural expert
ment station farms at Pennsyl-
vania and Cornell universities,
and it has also been used at the
U. S. Department of Agriculture
research center at Beltsville, Md.
All have reported favorable re-
suits"
A few Maryland farmers have
also used the preservative. They
are enthusiastic about the pro-
duct and plan to continue using
it, according to Dietrich.
The appearance of this new
material is similar to ordinary
table salt. The cost is relatively
cheap compared to 500 (sulfur
dioxide gas), molasses, grains
and other preserving materials
normally used.
The basic principal of sodium
metabisulfite is similar to 500
gas, but it is easier to apply. 1t
can be applied without special
equipment and can be safety
used by anyone around the farm.
There are several devices for
metering out this new preserva-
tive so that it can be uniformly
mixed with the chopped forage.
A fertilizer attachment from a
corn planter can be rugged up
either on the forage harvester or
attached to the blower at the
Silo. There are also some devices
put out by machinery dealers
which do an excellent job.
Some farmers who aren't too
handy at rigging up these "Rube
Goldberg" devices find it's just
as easy to weigh out eight pounds
of metabisulfite per ton of green
chopped material and spread
half of it on the chopped grass
when the load is half on, then
spread the rest on top of the load
before it goes through the blow
er at the silo. This, and other
similar methods, seem to give
excellent results.
ut seems the main advantage
of using this new preservative is
that it eliminates the strong OBJ
iectionable silage odor which is
usually associated with the feed.
ing of grass silage," Dietrich ex.
plains. 1.-The silage is preserved
with a nice green color and the
odor is mild and sweet. Another
advantage is that this preserva-
tive can do the job when the
weather is too damp and cloudy
to wilt the forage crop"
Unlike ground cereal grains
and molasses, metabisulfite does
not add any feed value to the
silage. Also, it should not be used
on crops that are wilted because
the moisture in the crop is neces.
sary to react with the metabi.
sulfite to generate sulfur dioxide
This in turn forms an acid which
is the actual preserving agent.