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THE GEORGIAN’S NEWS BRIEFS 15 Twice as Many Cattle Could Be Raised By Use of Silo An Attractive Bathing Suit Fully Described by Olivette. Permits Greatest Amount of Food Per Acre, Con serves the Waste, Furnishes Appetizing, Succulent Food. By CHARLE S A. WHITTLE. With a silo it Is possible to grow56.9 per cent; a very creditable rec- two cows where one was grown be fore. More succulent food can be grown ©n an acre for the silo than can be grown in any other form. When con verted into ensilage more of the food content of a plant is conserved than when kept in any other shape. Cattle fed from the silo with suitable quan tities of other food, are kept health ier and thrive better than when fed In any other manner. The silo is both a source of econ omy and efficiency. Ten times as much space is required for storing com field-cured than when put in the silo. Three times as much space Is required to store hay in the barn than in the silo. So it is that the silo makes it possible to have smaller barns, carry less insurance, save cost of Tepairs. In feeding, the silo preserves from waste a larger quantity of food ma terials than is possible in any other way. True, there is some waste from fermentation in the silo, but the cur ing process of corn in the field or other field-cured crops, exceeds by far the waste from the silo. Economy of Silo. The chief economy in using the silo is that it is the means of converting portions of the plant into appetizing food which otherwise the cattle would discard in the trough. The equivalent of four tons of hay in feeding value can be easily ob tained from an acre of silage. Four tons of hay per acre, of course, are not to be had, except from a good patch of alfalfa. Crops for ensilage can be grown on most any kind of land and with little trouble. It is not so easy to get hay crops. No part of the country affords the opportunity that the South presents for growing, at lowest cost, abundant silage matter. Corn and sorghum with cow peas can be gathered in great abundance from a field of ordi nary fertility. Nothing like the equal amount of feeding matter can be grown in any other way. Consider ing that the silage crop can be grown as a second crop of the long growing season in the South, it is apparent, of course, that the kinds of crops that can be grown are not alone the South s advantage. Necessity of the Dairy. To keep a dairy up to maximum milk production all the year, of course, requires care in feeding. Ex perience has put beyond all question that no food source better serves the dairyman than the silage which he can get in great amounts from a small tract of land. Aside from the unquestioned econ omy, the silage has special value 5 n maintaining a healthy condition of the animal. It operates as a mild laxative and when properly balanced with cotton seed meal and some dry hay. the cow is in prime condition for the maximum production of milk. If a dairy is maintained on small acreage near a city where land ! s expensive, pasturage is out of the question, and the silo alone is the so lution of an economic feed. For most parts of the South, however, pas turage is abundant and easily main tained, so that it is the cheapest pos sible source of food for cattle. Con sidering that there is a nine-month pasturage season on lands covered with Bermuda grass, where one might consider that from $1 to $1.50 per month would be a fair charge as pas turage cost, it is apparent at once that cattle growing in the South need r.ot be an expensive proposition. The cheapness of pasturage, together with the long growing season, makes it unnecessary to go to the lengths in providing silage to w'hich more Northern farmers have to go during the longer period of stall feeding. But a long grazing season on in expensive pasturage does not abate the necessity of a silo. The mere fact that cattle .graze so much in tne ^South makes the silo the more neees- ary, for no food better follows or precedes pasturage than succulent si lage. They supplement each other splendidly. For Beef Production. Because of the healthy condition which silage produces in the animal, and because of the enlarged capacity for food which feeding siiage creates, beef growers have long recognized the value of leading up to the fin ishing season by using silage. Recent years have developed that silage is not only good as a succu lent food between pasturage seasons, but is a food that can be carried along till the feeding is finished. Former ly it was said that cattle fattened by use of silage did not kill out well, that the moat did not have good color and the bone was too hard, that in shipping the shrinkage was greater than in the case of strictly corn fed animals. Careful experiments have largely disproved these claims. At the Virginia station 124 beef animals were fed with reference to testing si lage in beef production, for a period of 149 days and were then sold on the market. These cattle were fed from eight to nine pounds of con centrates per day from twenty-five to thirty-nine pounds of silage per day and about two pounds of dry stover or hay. When shipped to mar ket the shrinkage was not as large as usually prevailed on shipment of corn-fed cattle from the same terri tory. The lot of cattle dressed out ord, considering that they were grades, fed only 149 days. Instead of the meat being inferior, it turned out superior In quality. The fat and lean were well blended and the color was excellent. It will be noted that some dry mat ter was fed. This is generally ad vised as a check on the laxativeness of the silage. Professor Charles Plumb, one of the greatest feeding experts of this country, connected with the Ohio State University, while strongly advocating silage, believes that to feed silage twice a day and bay once would prove a good policy. Others, however, claim that no more dry matter need be fed than by ex periments prove is necessary to pre vent too great a laxativeness of the animal. The most rapid and economic gains made in a car load of cattle averag ing 800 pounds each and fed from March 17 to July 15, by the Indiana Station, were those made from feed ing 33.81 pounds of silage, 14.6 pounds of corn, 2.34 pounds of cotton seed meal, 2.38 pounds of clover hay. This experiment, as will be observed, was conducted during the summer months. The cattle relish silage in the sum mer as well as in the winter. For those sections of the country where droughts occur, the summer silo is considered a most important adjunct to cattle raising. The Illinois station used silage for finishing choice Hereford steers along with a ration of broken ear corn and alfalfa. The cheapest gains were made where the silage exceeded the alfalfa, but the most rapid gains were made where the proportion of alfalfa to silage was greater. Corn silage, when supplemented with oats and hay and used for calves intended for beef production, will produce 35 pounds more gain per steer during the season at the same cost of ration than when shock corn similarly supplemented is fed, ac cording to experiment conducted oy the Illinois station. Another experiment where cattle were fed a ration of silage, shelled corn and cotton seed meal, as against another group that was fed all the corn and clover it would eat. The cost of gain per 100 pounds in the first was $9.79 and in the second $12.99. This experiment was con ducted by the Indiana station. Many instances might be multiplied giving the advantages of silage feed ing in the cost of beef production, but enough has been given to indi cate the general results. The more live stock grown per acre the greater the amount of manure available for enriching it. Since the silo makes it possible to raise two cows where one has been grown by other methods, so the silo makes it possible to get twice as much soil fer tility for the same outlay—a matter well worth considering in these days when acquiring soil fertility is be coming more and more expensive. Moreover, the silo is a means for returning to the soil the largest pos sible amount of the plant food con tents which the crops have taken out. Each plant grown on the farm robs the soil of a certain amount of fertile ity. If it is com that is grown and the gTain is sold off of the farm, rath er than fed on it, that much of soil fertility that has gone into the gram leaves and its equal is to be ob tained the farmer must go forth and buy it. If a part of the stalk of the corn is permitted to waste in the field, or is perihitted to cure in a form that the cattle do not eat. so much of food content of the soil is thrown away. But when it is cut up and put in the silo, all of the plant is made palatable and available for food. Thus, the least possible amount of soil fertility taken up by plants is permitted to go to waste. After being fed, of course, it goes back to the soil to that extent which the ani mal has not converted into bone, blood, sinew and fat. It is estimated that about 75 per cent of the elements of the plant get back to the soil when fed through the silo and re turned to the soil in the form of ma nure. All sections of the United States have better appreciated and made use of the silo than the South. True, some sections of the South devoted to dai rying and beef raising have been using silos writh great profit for a number of years. One can ride half across some of the Southern States and never see a silo. It is the great est need of the Southern dairyman. It is doubtful if beef production can be generally carried on with success in the South without the use of the silo. A silo can be constructed cheaply; in fact, more cheaply in the South than elsewhere. A farmer can build one himself at little cost. Usually it pays to have one built according to some of the best designs and at greater expense than the cheapest and more temporary kind, because of the lasting qualities, as well as its better arrangement. A silo can be built at a cost anywhere from $50 to $250. In the South they should be built with less diameter than in the North, be cause of climatic conditions. Any college of agriculture or ex periment station will furnish plans and specifications for a silo. Soma of the railroads will also do the same. It would seem that there is no ex cuse for the Southern farmer not having a silo. T HE scalloped bathing suit is one of the summer’s fancies. The little dress we portray has a foundation of gray satin, trimmed in plaid satin of gray and Geneva blue. The suit opens down the front, and is trimmed in self-buttons in a double row down its full length. The deep scallops at the bottom are bound in the plaid, and in turn the scalloped swallow-tailed rcdingote of the plaid and the upper sleeve is made kimono fashion, and is a continuation of the gray satin yoke which has little half-inch tucks in groups of three. The neck is cut in a modest V and is piped, yoke fashion, in the plaid. Things Worth Remembering Gout is rarely known among the working classes of Ireland. Their im munity from this complaint is thought to be due to the fact that their food consists largely of potatoes. There were 20,000 people in Eng land and Wales without a birthday this year owing to the fact that Feb ruary contained only twenty-eight days. Spain has more sunshine than any other country in Europe. The yearly average is 3,000 hours. In England its is 1,400. Germany is the greatest beer-pro ducing country In the world. Of 51,000 breweries in the world, 25,000 are in Germany. A lock of hair from the head of George Washington was bought at an auction sale in New York for $480. On an average no fewer than two hundred people are killed by light ning every year. More matches are used in the United Kingdom than in any other country in the world. All But— he began, “do you a little “Dear Mabel,” love me?” “O-h, George!” “Don’t you, Mabel? Just tiny bit?” “Well, y-e-s, George.” “And if I married you would your father give us a separate establish ment?” “Yes, George.” “And take me into partnership?” “Yes, George.” “And would your mother keep away from us except when I invited her?” “She would, George.” “And your brothers and sisters, too?" “Why, certainly. George.” “And, of course, the old gent would settle my debts?” “Of course, George.” “And buy us an automobile and provide you with a handsome dowry?'* “Yes, George.” “Darling, will you marry me?" “No. UeuEft&i”