262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



for your silo. The interest on that, at six per cent, is four 

 dolhirs and fifty cents. That is a fact to begin with. I 

 submit that it is a valid objection, — one that cannot be 

 lightly brushed aside, or passed over. We may go contrai^y 

 to mathematics, but it is an exact science. We may defy it, 

 if we please ; but we know who has got to suffer when - he 

 butts his head against a wall. It is the interest on that 

 every year that is the cost. If a man grows fifty acres 

 of corn-fodder, his silo will cost him, at that rate, thirty- 

 seven hundred and fifty dollars, — as much, perhaps, as his 

 farm is worth. 



As I have said, I am not here as an advocate. I want 

 simply to state facts. We must look facts square in the 

 face, and not be carried away by a momentary excitement. 

 It takes a good deal of a man to keep cool when the tide 

 is rushing in one direction ; and I think that a good many 

 of our farmers are level-headed men, for I find that they 

 are keeping cool. In saying this, I do not say that the silo 

 should be kicked unceremoniously out of New England. I 

 say it should be brought down from the elevation to which 

 it has been hoisted in public estimation. 



Mr. Slade. I wish the gentleman would answer one 

 question before he takes his seat. Suppose you were put in 

 possession of ten cows, and were required to supply this vil- 

 lage with milk to the greatest extent possible, and you had 

 nothing to feed them on, and had to go into the market and 

 purchase the food, what would 3'ou purchase, and how would 

 you feed it to produce the most milk? 



Mr. Sanborn. I will suppose that hay is twenty-five dol- 

 lars a ton, oat-straw eight dollars a ton by the carload, and 

 corn-fodder eight dollars a ton, — said to be the prices of this 

 place. If I had the hay and fodder in my barn, I should sell 

 the hay, and use oat-straw and corn-fodder. I should not use 

 the hay. I should buy limited amounts of clover, if I could 

 (as often can be done for less than hay), because it is worth 

 half as much more than hay as a fertilizer. I would feed the 

 straw and the corn-fodder (more of the latter), with the addi- 

 tion of some cotton-seed meal. Taking the coarse foods I 

 have named as the basis, I should put with them cotton-seed 

 meal, bran, or corn-meal. I do not believe in feeding for a 

 poor quality of milk. 



