SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 19 



the physical modifications, which it must pass through before it is 

 assimilated, are more easily secured than if the same were fed in a 

 dr^' state. It is believed that this impression is gained from a com- 

 parison of green grass with hay made from grass in a more mature, 

 and perhaps ripe, condition. If reliable conclusions arc to be 

 reached, the comparison should be made in like stages of growth. 

 It ma^' be that further experiments will establish new facts, but just 

 now there is a lack of proof that grass will net the farmer greater 

 profits preserved in silos or fed in a green state than if dried and 

 stored in the fonn of hay. 



The strong i)oint which the advocates of silos and ensilage make, 

 however, is that this process makes it practicable to grow and 

 utilize fodder-corn to any extent desired for stock forage. (The 

 term " fodder-corn" is used in the sense usually understood when 

 used to designate corn grown without ears of grain expressly for 

 stock fodder. ) The great obstacle heretofore to its extensive pro- 

 duction has been the difficulty of preserving it in its full value. The 

 process of ensilage overcomes that difficulty, and its enthusiastic 

 advocates claim, will, when adopted, entirely revolutionize our agri- 

 culture. Gotfart says : " If I speak more particularly of maize, it 

 is because I have found in that wonderful plant all the elements of a 

 new and boundless agricultural wealth, from the day when I arrived 

 at the assurance of its indefinite preservation b}' ensilage for the 

 nourishment of cattle throughout the whole 3'ear." Dr. Bailey claims, 

 with apparent honesty, that by this system a half dozen cows may 

 be fed a full 3-ear from a single acre of land ; and that butter maj' be 

 made at a handsome profit for ten cents a pound, milk at one cent 

 a quart, and mutton for nothing. E. W. Stewart, of Erie county, 

 N. Y., a gentleman of large experience in feeding stock, a careful 

 writer, and reliable authority in agricultural matters, says : "I have 

 great confidence in the silos for the preservation of green food for 

 stock, and believe that it is likely to revolutionize our present system ; 

 but let us keep the imagination within the bounds of probability." 



Rather than depend on the imagination for guidance in this mat- 

 ter, it will be well to enquire into the value of fodder-corn as stock 

 food. It has been grown by the farmers of Maine to a greater or 

 less extent as a supplement to the short pasturage of autumn, and 

 the universal testiraon}- is that it is not a rich fodder. Many 

 closely observing farmers have stoutly maintained that they could 

 get no benefit from feeding it. At the present time, probabl}^ there 



