182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



not to cost more than sixty or seventy cents a rod more. 

 That is a little over two dollars a rod for sinking a wall in 

 the ground, and making a good drain in the place of the old 

 wall. I believe that it is worth every cent that it cost. That 

 is all I have to say about it, except this : that I have been 

 sinking walls for several years ; and I find that it pays me in 

 under-drainage, as well as gets rid of the eyesore of the wall. 

 The Chairman. Now the time lias passed which was 

 assigned to another subject. I have great confidence in doc- 

 tors; and we have a paper coming from Dr. Faxon, who lives 

 up in the land where they grow presidents (in Quincy), who 

 proposes to tell us how to make silos, and preserve ensilage, 

 so that we can all do it. 



HOW THE SILO MAY BE MADE AVAILABLE BY ANY FARMER. 



BY DR. W. L. FAXON. 



To enable a farmer to decide for himself whether any pro- 

 cess of preserving fodder is a good one, it is requisite that 

 he should possess some knowledge of the constituents of the 

 plant he intends to preserve, and some knowledge of the 

 changes fodder undergoes in the process of curing or pre- 

 serving ; otherwise he cannot tell, for himself, what he may 

 expect as a result of the feeding of it, and consequently what 

 the result of his labor will be. Until within quite a small 

 number of years, it was, as a general thing, the custom in 

 this section to wait until July before beginning haying; for 

 it was supposed the grass became riper, and therefore better 

 fitted for fodder. We know now that this was a mistake, 

 and that early-cut fodder contains more nutriment ; for we 

 wish to obtain the nutriment in the stalk, and not in the seed. 

 Then, too, it was customary to cut the grass when the dew 

 was on it, partly, no doubt, because it cut easier ; and often 

 a whole day was consumed in drying the water out of the 

 grass, three days being considered none too long a time to 

 properly make the hay. Now, having learned more about 

 grass, and what it is good for, we wait until the dew is off 

 before we cut it ; and, with the ordinary farm machinery, the 

 hay is ready to house the afternoon of the day it is cut. 



So great a change has been made in this simple thing, be- 

 cause we know both why we should do thus or so, and how 



