260 EXPERIMENT STATION— BULLETINS. 



18. Have noticed no change in appearance or character since opened. 



19. We feed our cattle ensilage twice each day, giving to each animal each 

 time a full bushel basket, together with about four quarts of bran mixed 

 with it. A small ration of hay is given to the same animals once a day. 



20. We think our cows gave more and better milk on ensilage than on any 

 other feed we have tried. 



21. Could discover no deterioration in quality of milk since feeding 

 ensilage. 



22. Our horses and sheep have relished the ensilage quite as much as the 

 cattle, and it seems to entirely agree with them. 



23. Certainly no other process with which we are familiar will permit of 

 storing an equivalent amount of fodder as cheaply as in the silo. 



24. My experience thus far with the ensilage is more than satisfactory, and 

 it appears to me to be a new way out of the woods for the farmers who have 

 so long been suffering from depression in prices of all classes of farm products. 

 It seems to me that the only hope of future success lies in cheapening the 

 methods of production. 



I believe Michigan farmers, through the aid of silos and ensilage, may be 

 able to keep a cow on every acre of tillable land. The ensilage is as available 

 in summer as in the winter; and I don't think we can now afford to pasture 

 our stock, but that the dairy cows will give greater results when fed ensilage, 

 and merely allowed to run out long enough each day to afford proper 

 exercise; and I believe, that by availing themselves of this new system, our 

 farmers who have been keeping ten cows can better keep fifty. The same 

 would apply to feeding steers, or to growing sheep or horses. If our most 

 fertile lands properly treated can be made to produce 35 tons per acre of 

 ensilage, no one can afford to rely upon one or one and a half tons per acre 

 of hay. Neither can they afford to devote the additional area necessary for 

 pasturage. 



My impressions are that the silo has come to stay, and that the farmers 

 and stockgrowers will, through its aid, be raised out of their difficulties. 



Extract from letter of D. N. Blocher, Millington, dated Jan. 12, 1888: 



My silo is 11x14 and 16 ft. deep. Five and one-half feet of it, below the 

 sill of my barn, is made of an 18 inch stone wall, sand and water-lime 

 bottom, six inches of same material above the sill, studded and sheeted on 

 the inside with inch lumber, this lathed and plastered, using one barrel quick 

 and one-half barrel water-lime. Commenced filling September first with 

 corn, about three and one-half feet; then let it stand four days, filled three 

 feet, let it stand three days, then filled as before, and so on until corn was all 

 in. Got the silo about two-thirds full. Put on top six inches poor hay well 

 trod down. Then I covered with boards and plank and weighted with about 

 three tons of stone. Commenced feeding Nov. 26. I keep Jersey cows. 

 Before I commenced feeding ensilage I fed to each cow one bushel of man- 

 golds per day, say about 60 pounds, and all the good hay they would eat. 

 Then I fed 10 pounds ensilage and about one-fourth the amount of hay I had 

 been feeding. In one week the flow of milk increased 25 per cent, equal to 

 what it was in August, and the quantity is very regular, not varying three 

 pounds per day from eight cows, until about five days ago they began to 

 shrink, so that at this date (Jan. 12) they have fallen off 15 per cent. The 

 cause I cannot fully determine. Four calved in April, the balance in June 

 and July. This may be part of the trouble. But about a week ago I allowed 



