Corn as a silage crop.
The corn plant, with its large, solid, succulent stalks which do not air-dry easily but which ensile very readily, is preeminently the silage plant, and throughout the great dairy sections of the North most of the corn is handled through the silo. At one time or another ensiling has been recommended as a method of handling all the following crops: Corn, clovers, alfalfa, meadow grasses, cowpeas, soybeans, Canada field -peas, sorghum, sunflower, millet, and, in fact, all crops used for forage, apple pomace, beet pulp, and canning - house refuse of various kinds. These have been ensiled with more or less success, but never with advantage over corn. Sometimes some of them are used to advan tage with corn, as the last cutting of alfalfa. But corn has been and is likely to continue to be the peer among crops for the gilo. It loses somewhat in feeding value when put in the silo, but with proper care the loss need be very little,— 4 to 8 per cent of the dry matter. In any event, it is less than when the fodder is cured in the field.
Silo construction.
It is of interest in this connection to mention briefly the evolution of silo construction. In its earliest development in Europe, the silo took the form of stacks of wet grass or ricks covered with earth. In the United States it was first a walled pit in the earth and later a masonry structure above ground, and it was thought essential, after filling, to weight the mass very heavily, often with stones or barrels of sand. These methods have now only historical interest. The wooden silo may be said to have passed from a square or rectangular structure, built like a barn frame, having double boarding with tarred paper between, to a cribbed up hexagon or octagon, and then to a structure of thin boards bent around a circle of studs, every board forming a hoop,— the so -called Wisconsin idea. Now the silo almost universally has taken the form of a tank-like vessel built of wooden staves, usually two inches thick, tongued and grooved and drawn tight together by round iron hoops fitted with devices for shortening them as may be necessary. There
is every indication that this represents the final step in the evolution of the silo, and that in its essential character this will remain the perma nent form. Possibly as the years go by, the difficulty in securing suitable lumber may re sult in the general adop tion of concrete, built in cylindrical form, with heavy wire or light iron rods laid in the mold to strengthen it.
Hemlock, pine, cedar and cypress are all used extensively in silo construction. The cypress is doubtless best, but its price is rapidly making it almost prohibitory. We have not as yet much data regarding the life of the stave silo, but even hem lock endures for as much as fifteen years, providing the silo stands empty during the warm months, in a dry, airy place. When filled and kept for sum mer feeding, thus remaining damp, its life is greatly shortened.
Cultural methods.
Varieties and quantity of seed.—The best varie ties of corn and the thickness of planting for silage are a somewhat different problem from when the ripe grain is the only object. When the crop is intended for the silo, the feeding value of the stalks is no less important than that of the grain, and the question really resolves itself into : What varieties and how much seed will afford the great est quantity of digestible nutrients per acre ? In general we may say that the best condition of the crop for the silo does not demand complete ripe ness, so that it is advisable to use one of the larger and later varieties of corn even in the North, as this will give greater tonnage. Thus, near the northern limit of the corn-belt, where only the flint type of corn is raised for grain, it is generally best to plant one of the dent varieties for the silo. Usually it is best to plant the largest variety of corn that will become reasonably mature in the locality.