Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1917 — fight Dry Weather With Holes in the Ground [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

fight Dry Weather With Holes in the Ground

by Robert H. Moulton.

Tarmers in semi-arid regions of west and Southwest make inexpensive silos by digging pits and lining them with cement:: Tylethod may be used profitably in any part of country

1 / 1 •— llll N THE pit silo the farmers of the semiHarid regions of the Southwest have found a valuable aid in their efforts to wrest a living from the soil. In the winter of 1913-14, following the unprecedented drought of 1913, .it proved Fts value to such ah extent that hun-

dreds of them have been constructed by the farmers of western Kansas, Oklahoma, eastern Colorado, northern Texas, and New Mexico. In one Colorado county aloneyE 1 Paso —the existence of a few pit silos last fall saved $50,000 worth of live stock which would have perished In the severe winter following the dry summer. There were more than 200 pit silos in this county the past summer. The silo is getting to be an old story on the prosperous farms of the middle West. The value of the great tank to preserve the feed values of forage crops and utilize them through the winter and spring when the pas-

tures are resting, has been tested so often that nearly every successful farmer has constructed one or more of them. The pit silo is only about three years old, and has been in extensive use for only two years? It is not a new thing, but it Is new in the Southwest, where it is more valuable than in any other farming region in the United States. A few silos have been in use in lowa, in Illinois, and even in Mississippi, for a number of years, but their use in these regions has not spread. A silo is a .water-tight structure into which corn and other fodder are packed while green so tightly that no space is left for air, and with enough moisture to insure fermentation. The material is generally cut into strips not more than an inch or two in length. In the winter, after the fermentation and curing process have been completed, the silo is opened and the “mash” is fed to live stock. It is as palatable and nourishing as green fodder, and exhaustive and long-continued experiments "have proved that beef cattle, mllch horses, mules, and sheep thrive on it. The process preserves about 90 per cent of the food values of the green fodder. If the fodder is left in stacks or shocks it loses fully one-half x»f the food value through the drying-out process. In the Southwest last winter and spring the owners of pit silos learned that the immature and hotwind dried-out fodder crops, which would have been practically worthless as dry food, made a very good food when converted into ensilage in the pit silos. One illustration will prove its value in this regard. J. C. Michael is a farmer in the Lincoln district of El Paso county, in eastern Colorado. In August,,. 1913 when it was apparent that the drought and hot winds had already made it impossible to secure a cron Michael, assisted by two men working at odd times, built a 35-tpn pit silo. The cash.outlay was only $4.45. Into this hole in the ground Michael nncked the corn from ten acres, the best of which would not yield more than ten bushels per acre. The corn was Immature, and there was no chance for it to imifhove. If harvested and stacked for use as fodder in dry form it would have been worth cnlv a few dollars per acre. From late fall until spring Mr., Michael fed the ensilage to 10 milch cows and 12 heifers, 20 pounds _ day per-head for the cows and five pounds for heifer* No grain was fed, but the cattle were Sven a little millet and oat straw for roughage. The entire herd kept in good condition, and the en cows provided Mr. Michael with ten dollars ivorth of cream every week. ■ . The nit silos in the Southwest are generally nothX than holes in the ground lined with ceof varying thickness. : Some of them are conitructed with a heavy concrete collar to prevent caving in and to keep out The moisture Some of them have concrete extension above the surface of the ground. There are all sorts and sizes and all shapes and kinds of construction, for the pit silo is still such a new farm device that it ttas not been .standardized. The cost ranges from 14 45 cash outlay of Mr. Michael, to $l5O for the larger ones, with an inch cement lining and heavy Zincrete collars extending deep into the ground and above-ground extensions. The average cort-ot the hundreds that have been built rangesbetween 115 and S2O. / A number of interesting methods have been brought into use to make the most Of this new form of silo. Two brothers, Ray and Fay garner, who live near Colby, in western Kansas, «tive discovered a method by which they can dig a 30-foot hole for a pit silo th atout two days. They contract to ,<Ug pit silos 10 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep

for about $35, and their method is practical throughout western Kansas and eastern Colorado, since thereJs very little rock above a depth of 40 to 30 feet. The Harner brothers use the blower of a threshing machine with which.... ta -.remove the, dirt from the pit, blowing it through the air and so scattering it about that there is no unsightly pile of earth left. A five-horse-power engine furnishes the -- blower and funnel are lowered into the hole, and the men throw the

dirt into the receiver. In sand}. ’ task have sunk a 20-foot hole in. cig i , vo rking in which would require two laborer., nccom . the usual way, from two to thre ® , eD and plish. The Harners dug one P jt JO f eet deep and 12 feet across In 18 hours, The dirt n gmade 12 feet above the ground through an opening made

in the roof of the barn and blown to the winds, One man in Oklahoma’s Panhandle last year, after he had built or dug a pit silo at a total cost of $lO, proved that Russian thistles cgn be converted into fair stock feed. This man was Albert Stone, who Uyfisuiear Guymon. When bls 15 by 17 silo was finished, with a $2 shed over it, he found he was short of feed, and filled it with thistles, broomcorn, kafir and mllo. The thistles were cut too late to make good feed, but in the fermenting process the thorns were softened and the cattle ate them readily. There was not enough from his 30 acres to fill the small silo, but Mr. Stone found that the results were sufficient to repay him. All winter he fed 7 milch cows, 12 horses, 6 calves, and several hogs, feeding them nothing but the silage. It lasted for three months. As dry feed it would have been gone in three weeks. That pit silo was the only source of revenue on the farm for the year, and the milk kept tTie family in groceries and other necessities. Experiments covering a period of three years, made at the Kansas Agricultural college, have proved that silage from corn, from kafir and from sorghum have equal feeding value, ton for ton, for both beef cattle and dairy cows, when each variety is placed in the silo at the proper time. This proper time for corn is when the kernels are beginning to dent, for kafir and sorghum when the seeds have grown so hard they cannot be crushed between thumb and forefinger, and while the stalks and leaves are still green. These tests have proved that the practice in the past has been to cut kafir too green to get the full feed value in the silage. These tests will have a very important bearing -uponPTariuing in the semlarld districts. The best silage crop will be corn where the rainfall is ample, kafir where the rainfall is moderate, and sorghum where it is light. Sorghum is practically a cure crop, where it is well cultivated, in the driest years in western Kansas and Oklahoma, the Panhandle of Texas, and in eastern New Mexico and in Colorado. Every farmer In the Southwest,, it is said. needs a silo as badly ns he needs anything; it is further said that not two men in ten are aj)le to build an above-ground silo because of the expense. The pit silo costing only r one-tenth as much, and capable’ of being built by the- farmer himself, is expected to solve this problem until farmers are able to purchase the more expensive and better nhove-ground silos of woods, tile, concrete or . metal. ~. -...- ... ....... ....... .-. .