The Rural Voice, 2003-09, Page 42Storing the crop
Silos and haystacks helped
farmers keep their crops
safe for winter feeding
By Larry Drew
Judging by the photographs that
decorate our wall calendar, and
the illustrations found in our
children's books, the image of a silo
standing beside a red gable barn must
certainly be the most commonly seen
symbol of the farm today. The silo
has even overtaken and replaced the
picturesque haystack, which is
probably the second most commonly
used farm image to be found in my
young daughter's library. What is
truly remarkable about this
transformation, for which our senior
readers could vouch, is that it
basically took place in just the span
of a lifetime.
A new scientific era began
ushering in the first experimental
silos in North America in the 1870s
and 1880s. The idea of ensiling crops
was actually European -born, and not
new. Ensiling of whole -plant cereals
and grasses in pits or small stone -
built structures had probably taken
place on a small scale for centuries.
In the early 1700s, ensiling of beet
tops and grasses was being practiced
in the northern Alps and Baltic
regions. But it wasn't until the 1870s
38 THE RURAL VOICE
Farmers feed sheaves of corn into a
cutting box while filling a glazed -clay
silo (above). A rare square cement silo
is seen below. Silos revolutionized
storing of crops.