98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



quently, the eight acres will keep twenty head of adult cattle 

 through the winter, and this notwithstanding I had less than a 

 two-thirds crop, owing to the drought and poor judgment in select- 

 ing fertilizers. Can you beat this exhibit on hay ? 



Question. How large a quantity of grain do you feed with the 

 ensilage ? 



Mr. HuRD. About two pounds of corn meal and the same 

 weight of wheat bran; in all, four pounds of grain. I am feeding 

 to the cows 1 have an average of sixty pounds of ensilage a day. 

 Now I would like half a dozen of you to tell what you call a fair 

 hay ration for dairy stock, remembering that they get four pounds 

 of grain. (Several gentlemen said " twenty pounds," one " fifteen 

 pounds," and two " twenty-five pounds.") 



Dr. Stdrtevant. Eighteen pounds is the maintenance ration 

 for one thousand pounds of live weight at the New Hampshire 

 Agricultural College. 



Mr. HuRD. Take that figure. At home, year in and year out, 

 hay is worth twenty dollars. Eighteen pounds will cost eighteen 

 cents. Now, my ensilage ration, at four dollars per ton, has cost 

 me thirteen cents. Is there any saving there ? 



Question. I would like to ask Mr. Hurd if it costs him eighteen 

 cents to get his hay into the barn ? 



Mr. Hurd. It does not make any difference what the hay costs, 

 because it is worth that, and you can get eighteen cents cash for it. 



Question. You are figuring what your ensilage cost you; why 

 not take what your hay cost you on the same principle ? 



Mr. Hurd. One of the advantages of ensilage is, it furnishes a 

 winter forage crop which can be raised outside of the meadows and 

 enables the farmer to sell his hay — which in most localities in this 

 State commands a price far beyond its feeding value to the farm. 

 If ensilage had or could have a market value, then it would be 

 only fair to figure both on the same basis, as an important portion 

 of the profit derived from the system is in increasing the cash 

 crops of the farm. 



Question. If it is worth that for feed, it must have a market 

 value, although it may not be taken in that shape at the present 

 time. If you figure your hay at the market value, why should 

 not your ensilage be figured at the market value to correspond ? 



Mr. Hurd. Ensilage has not, and never can have, a market 



