ENSILAGE. 9 



Nor were these temporary successes with special lots of 

 show-butter : they have competed with us in the Boston 

 market ; and, leaving out of the question some of the dairies 

 of high repute that have a demand at a fancy price from 

 established customers, the creamery product of Wisconsin, 

 Iowa, and Illinois has brought ten per cent more money in 

 the open market than the choicest New-England product. 



This is owing to its high average quality and uniformity, 

 not for one shipment or carload, not for a hundred tubs, 

 but for continuous, sustained excellence of the product from 

 season to season. 



Every district where the milk of from two hundred to 

 four hundred cows can be controlled is a proper situation 

 for a creamery. The saving of labor to the women of the 

 household, who are always overburdened, the economy in 

 tools and appliances, in transportation and marketing, are 

 all points in favor of co-operative butter-making 



ENSILAGE. 



In the report of 1880 I stated that it then appeared that 

 the ensilage system would be valuable only as an auxiliary 

 in feeding our stock. 



The claims of the advocates of silos were then very ex- 

 travagant. It was contended that certain " improved " seed, 

 widel}^ advertised, woidd produce from forty to seventy tons 

 of corn-fodder to the acre ; and the most moderate calcula- 

 tors estimated twenty-five tons as an average crop. It was 

 also asserted that the fermentation of the mass in the silo 

 caused an increase of nutrition in a watery, innutritions crop ; 

 that cattle eagerly ate it ; and that, with but a moderate addi- 

 tion of nitrogenous food, the flow of milk was greatl}^ aug- 

 mented, or growth and fat increased. There appeared to be 

 a great saving in the cost of maintenance, and many farmers 

 were led to expensive trials of the system. It has been the 

 endeavor of the Board, by publishing the chemical analyses of 

 ensilage, to give correct statements in regard to its value as 

 a food ; and the experiments of those who have planted corn- 

 fodder have reduced the estimate of average yield on our soil 

 to something like twelve tons to the acre. 



More cotton-seed or corn meal and bran is required to 

 complete a ration than was expected ; and, with the present 



