10 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



state of the evidence, it appears very doubtful if ensilage is 

 to be even an assistance in our system of feeding. 



Twelve tons of average ensilage contain but little more 

 than two tons of dry matter, and cost, to raise and harvest, 

 more than thirty dollars. As the same land would produce, 

 with less cost and less trouble, a larger quantity of dry mat- 

 ter in any of our forage crops, and about the same amount of 

 fodder in addition to a crop of ripened corn, it is impossible to 

 figure out a profit. 



The advocates of ensilage claim that the average crop will 

 be much larger than I have stated it. Perhaps it may ; and, 

 when it is proved to be, the Report of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture will so state it. 



If the average crop of corn-fodder can be increased to 

 twenty tons, which is the heaviest yield reported, and cotton- 

 seed meal remains at its present price, and the health of stock 

 is not affected by the diet, milkmen will have an interest in 

 the system. 



At the meeting of the American Dairymen's Association, 

 lately held at Syracuse, N.Y., it was the opinion of that body 

 of practical farmers and butter-makers, that ensilage, with 

 cotton-seed meal, was not the diet for their cows. The 

 necessity is a higher quality of butter rather than a cheaper 

 product. The farmers of the North-west, who are our com- 

 petitors in the butter-market, will not be met by cream from 

 ensilage and cotton-seed: we must use the best corn-meal 

 raised on our own soil. 



The relative value of ensilage and corn-stover, so much 

 discussed, seems fairly settled in the Report (No. 19) of the 

 New Jersey Experiment Station. 



GREEX FODDER-CORN; DRIED FODDER-CORN; ENSILAGE. 



Two very important questions are considred in the follow- 

 ing bulletin : first. Is the loss of food by fermentation, when 

 green fodder-corn is dried in stacks, greater, or less, than 

 when it is preserved in a silo ? second, Is ensilage more valu- 

 able for milk-production than dried fodder-corn ? 



To study these questions, an experiment was begun on the 

 College Farm on the first of September, 1881. At that time 

 the corn was in the milk, the stalks were very rich in cane- 



