96 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



tory can be made. An analysis of ensilage and dry corn fodder I 

 examined recently showed a difference in favor of ensilage of only 

 five per cent. But you could not convince me or any of my men 

 that there was no greater difference. 



Mr Spurr, of Farmington. "Weight for weight ? The ensil- 

 age weighs a great deal more than the dry corn. 



Mr. Hurd. Yes, weight for weight. 



Mr. Spurr. Of course a cow will not eat sixty pounds of dry 

 corn fodder in a day. That is what I was getting at. 



Mr. Hurd. No, sir; certainly she will not. But by weight, 

 take as a basis, to illustrate what I mean, one hundred pounds of 

 green corn fodder and dry it; take another one hundred pounds 

 and ensilage it; then the corn ensilaged would exceed in feeding 

 value the corn dried by a good deal more than five per cent., and this 

 basis is, I think, the only fair one, as in one hundred pounds of 

 dry corn fodder you have several times as much plant growth as 

 you have in one hundred pounds ensilaged. My lack of faith in a 

 satisfactory analysis of ensilage lies in my belief that the drying 

 process, which is the preliminary step to all analyses, of plant 

 growths, if I am correct as to the methods pursued, destroys the very 

 best part of the ensilage, and when the analysis proper begins you 

 have simply dried corn fodder. If you doubt my assertion, then 

 go next summer into your hay fields and notice the aroma which 

 is evaporating from the hay and transforming the food that will 

 make golden, fragrant butter into a food that can only make a 

 white, flavorless substance called by courtesy butter because it is 

 obtained from cow's milk. The process of drying destroys the 

 most valuable portion of the crop. The earlier this drying can be 

 stopped the more valuable the forage. Hence our best farmers 

 want to get their hay into the barn as green as possible. 



Question. What should a silo cost ? 



Mr. Hurd. My own cost about two dollars and a half per ton 

 capacity; much more than they would could I have personally 

 superintended their building, and more than they would were I to 

 build to-day. Prices vary greatly in different locahties. One 

 man can build so much cheaper than another. I cannot give a 

 clearer idea than this. 



A gentleman has just handed me a slip of paper which I am 

 requested to read. It is headed, " Dr. Lawes on Ensilage," and says, 

 "The eminent English agricultural chemist, Dr. Lawes of Kotham- 

 stead, thinks that the recent ensilage mania in America is a little 



