76 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



allowed to attain a much larger and more substantial growth 

 before cutting, than is practicable when the same crops are 

 fed fresh from the field. 



During my absence fi'om home in the summer of 1879, my 

 foreman had inadvertently allowed a field of about four 

 acres of pearl millet to attain so large and hard a growth, 

 that my cows wholly rejected the stalks, and would eat only 

 the leaves when the millet was offered them green. 



By way of experiment, and without much confidence in 

 the result, I cut about one-fourth of this field, and filled one 

 of my pits with it. The remainder of the field was cured 

 by drying in shocks in the ordinary way. This last was 

 found so nearly worthless for feeding dry, that it was used 

 for litter in the barnyards, and for covering ice. That pre- 

 served in the pit was opened and fed in April last. My 

 cows ate it all, leaf and stalk, eagerly, without any loss or 

 waste whatever ; and it was fully equal in value to the same 

 quantity of the best corn-fodder preserved in the pits. I 

 have this summer filled one pit with fodder-corn, after the 

 stalks had attained full growth, and the ears were well 

 formed. Of this corn, when fed green, my cows rejected 

 fully one-half the stalk. I have no doubt this corn-fodder, 

 when fed from the pit next winter or spring, will be found 

 as valuable as any corn-fodder in my pits, and be eaten up 

 eagerly, and entirely clean. Great economy may be found 

 in allowing fodder-corn and other fodder-crops to attain a 

 heavy growth, and then cutting them all at once, instead of 

 cutting and feeding them piecemeal in the mode usually 

 practised. 



The process of preserving fodder in pits is exceedingly 

 simple, and easily practised. The conditions of success are 

 these : — 



First, The preserving-pits must be wholly air-tight, so 

 that, when sealed, the air cannot come in contact with the 

 food preserved. 



Second, The pits should be of such form and dimensions 

 as will best facilitate the settling and compacting of the 

 food into a solid mass, and, when opened for feeding, will 

 expose as small a part of the surface to the atmosphere as 

 practicable. 



Third, The fodder must be cut green when in the best 



