1882.] ENSILAGE. 97 



premature, and that it is just possible that some of our most 

 practical farmers are inclined to go a little further into the silos 

 than the real merits of this system of preserving fodder will war- 

 rant." In a letter to one of our city contemporaries he says: "In 

 order to show what the real loss is which takes place, and arrive 

 at a just conclusion, that forty or fifty tons of corn should be 

 weighed into and out of the silo, and samples of the corn as it 

 goes in and comes out should be submitted to a careful analysis. 

 When the results are known, it is possible that the exaggerated 

 opinions which appear to prevail in some places with regard to the 

 value of this process might be reduced to a more natural level." 



Gentlemen, there is truth in that; there is also sophistry. Many 

 men like to throw cold water on a fire even when no danger exists. 



As to the cost of ensilage. My crop last year cost me $5.21, 

 this year $3.21 per ton. In figuring this cost I have valued the 

 land at one hundred dollars per acre and charged six per cent, in- 

 terest; I have charged the enlire value of stable manure and fer- 

 tilizers used to the crop; all laboi- is figured at current market 

 rates for day labor; ten per cent, for the wear of implements used, 

 and a fair percentage of the general farm expenses. Figuring 

 exactly as I would as a manufacturer who wanted to be sure and 

 get the outside cost, and very differently from most of the figures 

 I see made by farmers as to the cost of crops. Did I adopt 

 their style I should reduce these figures one-third to one-half. But 

 I do not care to deceive myself, nor you; I desire to know the 

 worst side. 



How large crops can be raised ? How large did I raise ? People 

 talk about fifty to seventy-five tons; I have not seen any such, 

 and scarcely expect to. I cannot tell with certainty, in tons, what 

 my own crop was, as I have no scales; but I hope another year to 

 give a definite answer to this question. My men say I had one 

 hundre.l and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five tons. The 

 editor of a leading New England paper who visited me while I 

 was ensilaging was "certain there was over two hundred tons." 

 My own best estimates placed the crop inside of one hundred and 

 twenty-five tons. But while I cannot tell you the amount in tons 

 1 c&n in feedivff value. I have now fed 2,100 rations and have 

 rather more than three-fifths of the crop left, showing that I had 

 some 3,700 rations — enough to keep ten head o)ie year, or one and 

 a quarter head to each acre for the entire twelve months; conse- 

 7 



