ANIMAL GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 255 



labor attending the curing of hay in rainy weather. The 

 loss is not pretended to be any thing like that in the silo ; so 

 that, in estimating the value of dry food in comparison with 

 green food, we must take all of these things into considera- 

 tion in order to get at fair results. 



Another pomt. It was stated that it had been claimed 

 (and I suppose that referred to my statement) that forty 

 tons of corn-fodder could be grown upon an acre ; and an- 

 other gentleman asked the question if it were possible to raise 

 enough food upon an acre of ground to keep six cows a year. 

 But it will be noticed that I did not say " a year : " I said 

 "through the winter." I said that enough food could be 

 grown on an acre to winter six cows. I said so then, and I 

 say so now ; and I say it is possible to grow forty tons of corn- 

 fodder to the acre. We were recommended by the essayist 

 to intensify our farming. He said that we should do that in 

 order to secure the greatest profit. He quoted tlie cases of 

 several farmers who had grown this year from fifteen to 

 twenty tons per acre. Tliis year has been a very bad year 

 to grow ensilage : a great deal of corn failed to come up. It 

 has not been a successful corn year. A great many farmers 

 have grown not more than fifteen tons to the acre, and some 

 not more than ten ; but other farmers have grown forty tons 

 and more. Intensify your farming. Get the greatest results 

 from the smallest area of land. Cultivate highly, and 3-ou 

 can get your forty tons and more, I have no doubt. So that, 

 in discussing this subject, it is unfair to take tlie lower prod- 

 ucts instead of the possibility of the greater, that may be 

 easily obtained from intensified agriculture. 



The cost of the silo and of filling it was alluded to, and it 

 was made to appear that it was more expensive food than 

 dry fodder. Then the position taken by the advocates of 

 the silo — that there was an advantage in ensilage over dry 

 food — was not admitted. But I believe that it will not be 

 necessary to make a very extended argument to prove that 

 green grass in June will produce more milk, or more flesh, 

 than the same grass cured and dried into what we call rowen- 

 hay, and fed to the same animals. Professor Goessmann says 

 there is no loss of nutriment in the drying. You may let a 

 cow, or any animal, feed on this green succulent grass, and 

 then let them eat flie same grass when cured and made into 



