170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



manner of building silos, for if a man is silly enough to build, 

 let him do it as he thinks best." 



Mr. ScoviLLE. We put twenty-five hills of corn in a stack. 

 Those stacks yield a bushel of ears of corn. When we come 

 to husk it, it makes three good bundles. Now, if you should 

 feed, as Mr. Bill has said, one of these bundles of stalks to 

 each animal, and then divide the bushel of corn among three, 

 your oxen would be too fat to work, and your cows would be 

 far too fat to give milk. 



Mr. RuNDEL. I asked a gentleman who resides in one of 

 the largest milk-producing sections of our State in regard to 

 silos, and he said that while he thought they were good 

 things, those who bought milk had refused to take it if it 

 came from those who fed ensilage ; consequently, he said, 

 they had no more use around there for silos. It seems to me 

 that the question resolves itself largely into this : If they do 

 not want our butter, if they do not want our milk, that is 

 produced from ensilage, what is the use of it for us ? It 

 resolves itself right into the question proposed by Mr. Bill, 

 " Does it pay ? " You may talk about it, and around it, but 

 it will come right back to that question — Does it pay ? If we 

 have a good market for our butter and milk, if people will 

 buy them and give a good price for them, then it may be all 

 right. But if they do not want our butter or milk made from 

 ensilage, then we have no occasion to fill our silos. 



Mr. Sedgwick. In conversation with Maj. Alvord *of 

 Houghton Farm, this last spring, he told me that they had 

 tried a series of experiments at that place in relation to ensi- 

 lage. They took ten cows, all of them giving about the same 

 quantity of milk, and fed five of them on ensilage, and five 

 on good meadow hay — giving the cows that had ensilage all 

 they would eat. The milk was carefully weighed and tested, 

 and the product churned separately. It was found that while 

 the ensilage increased the product of milk, the longer it was 

 fed, there was a decrease of fatty matter in the milk, until 

 there came a time when the cream from that milk would not 

 make butter. He says that the experiment which they made 



