178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



hand, and people said the barn would burn up. When all 

 was in, I put boards on crosswise, and loaded that grass, 

 which was then about eleven feet high, with stones, at the 

 rate of at least a hundred pounds to the square foot, and 

 reduced the pile as much as I could. It sunk at least a third 

 in bulk. Some four or five weeks afterwards — possibly it 

 was not more than three weeks — I commenced on the front 

 side, and took down the boards, and cut off a strip about two 

 feet wide, which had moulded for about three inches in. 

 That fodder was a rich tobacco-color, and, instead of being 

 acid to the taste or smell, it was positively sweet. It had a 

 taste like honey. The flies came to it in swarms. I fed it 

 to my cattle, and, although there was not a creature that 

 would eat this black grass in its original state, they all ate it 

 readily. My cows did not decrease in milk : they kept in 

 just as good condition all through. I fed them almost exclu- 

 sively on this fodder. I don't believe I gave two pounds of 

 hay a day to the cows. Of course, there was some transform- 

 ation in the product which rendered that fodder, which before 

 was of little value, of considerable value. I am not going to 

 discuss the question as to whether silo product is worth more 

 than the same product would be if fairly saved in a dried 

 condition. I simply state the results of my experience, that 

 any other man, if he chooses, may try the operation. 



Question. How long did the grass remain in the field 

 after it was cut ? 



Dr. Faxon. It was carried directly to the barn. Proba- 

 bly there was none of it remained an hour on the ground 

 after it was cut. I fed it until midsummer, 



I tried another experiment about the same time. I Inxd a 

 box that I had used to steam food in. I begin to cut my 

 grass as soon as it is high enough, and feed it to my cows. 

 I took that box, and put in probably a ton of grass, and 

 Aveighted it the same way ; and at the end of three weeks it 

 had developed quite an acid smell and taste. You could not 

 get any such sweet taste out of it as out of the black grass. 



I will mention an experiment with corn-fodder. I had a 

 lot of fodder that I cut in October. It was sowed the last 

 week in July between my potatoes. I marketed the pota- 

 toes; and when the frost came, to save that fodder, I made a 

 pit eighty-four feet long, ten feet wide, and fifteen inches 



