1884.] QUESTION BOX. 171 



satisfied them that ensilage alone was not a profitable food, 

 although, to be fed in conjunction with something else, it 

 might be. 



What is there in ensilage to make it a valuable food ? If 

 you look at the analysis of it, you will see that it is worth less 

 than brewers' grains, and the Board of Health have prohib- 

 ited the sale of milk made from brewers' grains. We know 

 that it has the same alcoholic smell and taste. And when the 

 question of labor, the value of land, and the cost of handling 

 this mass of stuff, are taken into consideration, I think it 

 may well be doubted whether it is a paying thing. 



Mr. J, Beonson of Ohio. I have listened to the discussion 

 this afternoon with a great deal of satisfaction. I am not a 

 resident of this State, but I am a native of this town. I have 

 fed sowed corn for thirty or forty years, and I never have 

 heard any one say that the milk that came from sowed corn 

 was not good ; on the contrary, it was considered the best 

 milk that was ever sold to any factory ; and I certainly think, 

 from my own experience, that cattle fed on sowed corn will 

 thrive and look better in the spring than if fed upon any 

 other feed that you can give them. I use a horse-power and 

 cutter, and cut up my sowed corn and corn-fodder fine. In 

 an hour, I can cut a ton of stalks, and cut them not over half 

 an inch long. Sift on a little wlieat bran, and your cattle will 

 thrive, and when you let them out, they will kick up their 

 heels and do well. 



C. H. Cables of Thomaston. We cure our sowed corn by 

 cutting it and allowing it to lie on the ground a week or 

 more. If it is a dry time, and we have no rain, we bind it 

 up in large bundles, larger than ordinary rye-straw bundles, 

 and stack it in stacks of from thirty to fifty bundles, binding 

 it in the center and on top, and allow it to stand until we 

 want it. In the winter, we haul it on a sled to the barn as 

 we need it, and the inside is apparently as good as when it 

 was cut. We never have any mouldy corn. Some parties 

 have said that stalks make very poor milk. So they do, if 

 fed alone, but if we give our cows a quart of meal a day, we 



