mill ponds, that are in the winter and earl}' spring- seasons applied to 

 grist and saw-mill power, may be dried off in the late spring and their 

 beds cultivated in time for a crop of corn silage. The soil of such 

 lands is especially rich in all the elements requisite for large yields of 

 such crops. To convert these catch crops that I have named into hay 

 is, in our uncertain climate, a very unsatisfactor}', and often a very 

 unprofitable, part of the farmer's work. It requires a succession of 

 hot, dry days to cure for safe-keeping such coarse provender, and even 

 when hay caps are resorted to, the crop is badly damaged if the 

 weather takes an unfavorable turn before it is put under shelter. But 

 all these ills may be cured, regardless of the weather, by the use of the 

 silo. 



Many silage growers secure fairly successful yields by turning early 

 wheat stubble land and sowing cowpeas, and succeed in getting the crop 

 into the silo before frost. This is an uncertain dependence, for its 

 success hangs on having a good growing season all through. Yet it 

 rarely fails to pay the expenses of the effort, because if the season is 

 such as will not make mature silage or hay, the planter will have valu- 

 able late pastures for his stock and the land will be benefited by the 

 peas and be read}" for another crop of small grain without further 

 plowing. No other kind of stock food, green or dry, grain or stover, 

 will make milch cows respond at the pail and churn so readily as a late 

 growth of peas pastured off' in the fall at a time when everything else 

 seems to fail to arrest the natural tendency of the cow to decrease her 

 flow of milk. The dairy product, however, will be somewhat unfavor- 

 ably affected in its flavor by too much of this feed. 



During the fifteen years that the writer has been using the silo he 

 has endeavored to ascertain the best kind of crop for silage, and in 

 doing so has grown nearly all the forage plants that were thought to be 

 adapted to this climate and soil, taking into consideration always the 

 quality as well as the quantity of the product, and the purposes for 

 which that product was to be used- viz. making winter food for a 

 breeding herd of dairy cows. 



SORGHUM UNDESIRABLE FOR SILAGE. 



The several kinds of sorghums have been tried under the different 

 methods of planting and cultivation, and while the production was 

 large, the quality of the silage was not good. 



COWPEAS ALONE NOT SATISFACTORY. 



Most of the varieties of cowpeas have also been tried and found, 

 when grown alone on rich soil, expensive to handle and injurious to 

 the flavor of a first-class dairy product, although among the best for 

 a large production of milk and butter and for feeding beef and stock 



