254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



animal, whicli no doubt it did. Now, why take that instance 

 of forty pounds, when every man who has fed ensilage, and 

 all the authorities who have written upon it, say that sixty 

 pounds is the amount requisite to feed a cow, with a propor- 

 tionate amount of cotton-seed meal? That would change 

 the whole state of things entirely. We may say to ensilage 

 and to the silo, " Down, down ! " but it will not down. It 

 has been too well and firmly established, not only in Europe, 

 where it has been largely adopted (particularly in France), 

 but in this country. In Massachusetts, in New Jersey, in 

 New York, in Vermont, it has been tried thoroughly by our 

 very best and most progressive farmers ; and they all declare 

 that it is a success. You cannot argue it down. You can- 

 not put it down by bringing up an instance of one cow fed 

 upon two-thirds of a fair feed per da}^ and making that the 

 standard. I say such an argument is unfairl}^ put, and the 

 claims of ensilage cannot be met in any such way. 



We want to learn how to feed our stock in the most 

 economical manner. The advantages of dry food have been 

 presented to us, and the advantages of green fodder. The 

 growth of corn has been shown to us as being very great. I 

 agree with every word of it. Corn-fodder has been proved 

 time and again in this State, within a year, to be worth as 

 much, pound for pound, as the best English hay, for the pro- 

 duction of milk. That is a great revelation to the farming 

 interests of Massachusetts, and a very important one. But 

 we must consider the cost. We know that corn-fodder, well 

 cured, well housed, and properly fed, will produce those re- 

 sults ; but we also know how difficult it is to cure corn-fod- 

 der properly. I was going to say that it is impossible, and 

 there are certain seasons when it certainly is ; and there is a 

 great deal of labor attending it also. The labor must be con- 

 sidered, in curing and preparing corn-fodder, just as much as 

 the labor should be considered of carting twenty-three tons 

 of water into the silo. The labor in the one case sliould be 

 considered just as much as in the other in estimating the cost 

 of the food. Professor Goessmann has told us, that, in drying 

 hay without rain, there is really no loss of nutritive quality ; 

 but he says that two or three rains, such as we are apt to get 

 upon our hay, will reduce the nutritive quality of that hay or 

 fodder from twenty per cent to more than fifty, besides the 



