Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1912 — Everett Halstead Writes Of Silos and Silage. [ARTICLE]

Everett Halstead Writes Of Silos and Silage.

The silo is here as an economical feed saver. You will find them across New York, along the Hudson, around the Adirondack mountains, all over the rock ribbed hills of New England down along the Atlantic coast away into Texas along the Rio Grande, and I have even seen them along the Pacific coast of California. They have made it possible to keep four head of cattle where one was kept before. The same cattle are kept for less expense and in better flesh. Experience has taught the New England farmer to put as little grain in his silo as possible but put in stalk and grass and weeds. Here is the reason. You take a grain of corn out of your crib in the winter and qhew it, observe that it is sweet, a fine food. Take a grain of corn out of your silo in the winter and chew it, you will find it*sour and full of acid. iSo the farmer says feed dry, grain to cattle that eat ensilage and you have good results. And raise a kind of corn that is almost all stalk and fill your silo with that Square silos are a success. Smooth off and fill the corners so there is no corner on the inside. Any carpenter can build a square silo. Go to your lumber dealer and buy your material and build your own silo right in your own barn or outside if you prefer. Jlfake it any size you want and build it square. Cut off the inside corners, make it air tight but avoid the continuous door as they are patented. You can have a silo of your own, you can build it yourself, and you can save a lot of feed that would be lost. IHusk out four or five acres and feed v ' % it to the hogs or leave it on the ground, then run this in your small silo and you will have forty or fifty tons of green feed in January, February and March and your cows will make you happy. Feed some dry feed or grain to sweeten up their stomachs and you will be surprised at the results. I’ve been in the squaTe silos in the month of February and the owners said they had no spoiled ensilage and had used the silos twelve years. And I see the thrifty New Englanders erecting the square silos this summer. Some build square silos with 2x4 same as you see elevators, others use heavy studding 2x6 on the outside and use only inch pine boards Inside. All that is necessary is build it air tight and strong. Round silos fall down too readily in the summer time and cost twice as much as necessary. Order your Calling Cards at The Republican Office. *.