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Silos--ensilage

Silos--ensilage image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
February
Year
1882
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A good deal has been said and written of Jale on the new method oí' feeding corn fo1der by bnrning it intoensilage. This descripción oí the subject comes rnainly iiom the Easlern states, where it seems the s ■sU-m has been ou trial as a new oiie. A good many experiments bu ve been made by one party or another in the way of building silos, fllling them with ensilage and feeding the same to different kinds of stock, and quite a large number of these parties have given the result of their experiments to the public through one channel or another. As yet opinions aeein to be divided as to t,he advantages of the system, so far at least as giviag it Wldespreád application goe.s. It is, lio wever, au esiablished i act that corn fodder at the proper stage of growth can be cut into short pieees threeeighths to one-half inch ín lengtli, and pucked down as light as possible in a well made si)o and ensilage thus made will come out in the winter and inake a most excellent kind oi feed ,or cattle, e&peoially milk cows, and it is also settled that cattle are exceedingly fond oi' it A f ter saying this much it must, be said that experiments havenot gone far enough yet to satisfy the general pubiio that eusilage is the proper thing for i;imers to t'eed in all parts of tlie country, though we are of the opinión that the article can be used to good advaiitage in all those portions of the country where the summers are so short that a oorn erop cannot bemadeto mature. In such portions of the country a good erop of corn fodder inay be raised, and this may be made into ensilage and fed to the be3t kind of advantage, and in some portions of the country where the land istoothin and poor to produce a paying corn erop, a fodder erop may be raised that may be made into ensilage to good advantage. Asto the expense iuvolved in building a silo it may be made !o vary greatly accordiug to the plan f ollowed in building, the size, etc,, as they can be made to hold 50 or 250 tons of ensilage. We feo the cost stated at from $30 to $580 - in the latter case four thick walls were laid, the silos were made large, cement was used freely ia laying the walls and over the bo'ttom, the whole being covered with a good roof. The cheaper ones wereluilt of wood, something likc a common ice-house, and were of small size. As to the cost of raioing the e uu fodder and turning it into ensilage, Mr. J. R. Farnuin, of Mar.sitchusetLs, stated at a meeting oL the Walt ham Farmers Club that the expense of raising eoni, cultivating, harvesting and filling the silo, lie fund to be $149 a ton. His corn was raised hetween the rows of potatoes, and averaged about sixteen tons to the acre. ome parties claim to have raised upwards of twenty tons to the ere, but the whole matter must besunimed with the following which we copy trom the New England Farmer: Stil! it must be remembered that, so far so this genpration is eoncerned, the system is entirely new, and that sufficient time has uot elaused since the feeding of ensiiage was introduced, to givti us data upon which to form definite opinions, but particularly regarding its effect upon the health of cattle.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat