240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a marked decline in milk-flow. I should not care to assert 

 that the texture of the butter from the ration named, that 

 I am now feeding, is as good as from properly-cut haj, and 

 corn-meal. The quality of butter is so varied by various 

 foods, that it requires an expert to detect the nice variations 

 in the quality of butter. Butter from the rations named is 

 of good color and aroma ; and I do not as yet know that 

 it is not in all respects as good as from hay. 



ENSILAGE. 



The advocates of this recent system of preserving fodder 

 represent it to be of the first importance. They offer results 

 for our acceptance, that they claim to be a full realization of 

 hopes extravagant beyond sober calculation. Influenced 

 by these widely-current statements, much farm-capital has 

 already been invested in silos, and large amounts will proba- 

 bly be further withdrawn from agricultural resources for the 

 same purpose. Farmers would not make such a sacrifice of 

 their slender means, except in the belief that a discovery had 

 been made of great value in agricultural progress. With this 

 view, I propose to carefull}^ consider the merits claimed for 

 the silo system ; and, in doing so, I will ask some latitude to 

 notice facts that bear but indirectly upon the subject. 



It is claimed that the silo enables us to grow fodder-corn 

 to a greatly-increased extent, and that without this method 

 of preservation no such quantities could be grown and cared 

 for economically ; secondly, that, by the old process of air- 

 drying, there was a loss of value, and that this is avoided in 

 the silo ; thirdly, that the silo affords green food for winter, 

 and that such food is more effective than the same food 

 when dry ; fourthly, that the fermentation in the silo renders 

 food more digestible ; fifthly, that this fermentation warms 

 the food to blood-heat, and thus further assists the powers 

 of the stomach ; sixthlj', that experience proves it to require 

 less food to produce a pound of increase, or a given quantity 

 of milk, when ensilage is used. I wish to consider each point, 

 not in a controversial spirit, but with intent to bring out the 

 facts. Of course, every farmer hopes that all of its claims 

 may be substantiated ; yet, whatever our desires may be, we 

 must make a cool search for the facts, and accept them. 



