212 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



feed by growing proper ensilage and proper hay than he can 

 by experimenting with alfalfa or home-grown grains. Home- 

 grown grains I certainly do not want to discourage. They all 

 help on the feed bill ; but where home-grown grains are raised 

 to the detriment of properly grown ensilage and hay, I think 

 it is apt to mean a loss to the farmer instead of a gain. The 

 ensilage crop is in my judgment the most important cheap feed 

 on a dairy farm and one which in general is rather neglected. 

 In the eight years that we have been raising ensilage we have 

 had ensilage made of the tall horsetooth corn with the kernel 

 just beginning to form on the ear when cut, down to corn which 

 was fully glazed and fit for seed when it was cut into the silo. 

 From this experience I should judge that corn in this climate 

 cut before frost could not be too ripe to suit me. It isi generally 

 recommended to cut the corn as it is just beginning to glaze, 

 but in my own experience I would prefer corn fully glazed 

 for ensilage. In the two years that I have been able, on account 

 of the season, thoroughly to ripen my corn, I found that twenty 

 to thirty pounds of the ripe ensilage took the place of forty to 

 fifty pounds of the immature ensilage, and that my grain bill 

 was cut down a third to a quarter. In fact, the results with 

 ripe ensilage were so astonishingly good that I feel like calling 

 especial attention to these facts, for I believe that more pro- 

 gress toward a cheap feed bill may be made by getting fully 

 matured corn than in any other way. This idea of course is 

 not new. We have a bulletin of the Maine Experiment Station 

 telling practically these same results years and years ago ; but 

 I simply mention it at this time because it is a line of progress 

 w^hich is not now prominently before our dairymen's minds 

 through this state, and everyone should first of all insure a 

 crop of ripe ensilage. 



The next in importance is the hay crop. The hay crop will 

 respond so bountifully to a little care that frequently the yield 

 may be doubled by the application of a little top dressing of 

 manure or chemicals. Not only can the quantity be doubled, 

 but the quality may be greatly improved, and I would recom- 

 mend that a little constant care of the best areas of hay fields 

 in our state would mean a great increase in production and a 

 great blessing to our dairymen. 



