The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A large percentage of crops are grown as feed for livestock. Grains, grasses, legumes, and other plants not desirable for human consumption are ideal feeds for cattle, horses, sheep and other animals. When animal eat hay or pasture grass, the ingestion of air and coarse material causes bloating. Therefore, farmers prefer to keep feed material in silos to allow it to ferment into silage, a more palatable and nutritious substance. For example, sorghums, which are poisonous when directly consumed, must be fermented. Silo storage also provides feed through months of cold or drought. The first improvement in the production of fodder--straw chopped small enough for livestock consumption--came with the invention of mechanical straw, or chaff, cutters during the 1800s. Perhaps the first of these was the Hotchkiss guillotine straw cutter of 1808. The first silo was built in the United States in 1873. By the 1890s, most farmers, especially dairymen, had silos on their farms, since high quality feed increased the quality and quantity of milk production. Originally constructed of wood, which was not very air or water tight, silos were later made of stone, brick, or concrete. Corrugated metal has also become a popular building material for silos and other types of storage facilities. In the absence of silos, some farmers store fodder in water-tight pits. The ensilage chopper, which combined silage cutting with the corn picking process, was developed in 1915. An improved version was introduced in 1928. Another machine used for silage production is the tedder, developed in the 1870s, which fluffed hay for drying prior to storage. This was an important development because hay, when stored wet, rotted in the silo, making it unusable. By 1914 the side delivery rake became the preferred method for drying hay. Today, 90 percent of silage is chopped in the field. The principle silage crop of the last half of the twentieth century is corn, making up three-fourths of the total in the United States.