ANIMAL GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 271 



them for the last eight years in that way. I have endeav- 

 ored to convince that man that there is danger in it. It 

 has been found that it is not wholesome to feed animals on 

 steamed food ; but that was not found out in a week, nor in 

 a month, nor in a year. We must wait to find out these 

 things ; and therefore I say I am going to be cautious about 

 the use of ensilage. I am going to wait and see what the 

 result is, and those of you who are of my mind of course will 

 do the same. When I come before the farmers of Massa- 

 chusetts, I feel that it is my duty to express to them my 

 honest convictions. I feel that it is my duty, if I give them 

 any advice, to give them the same advice that I will take 

 myself. 



Now, my friend Mr. Ware, a man to whom I always look 

 up in- many things for advice, it seems to me, with all his wit, 

 is getting a little enthusiastic. You could all see how he felt 

 about his horses. He tried to have us understand, that, when 

 he fed his horses on a material that was eighty-seven per cent 

 water, he could hardly hold them. But how long has he fed 

 them ? He has fed them about a week or two on that mate- 

 rial. You can see at once he is getting a little enthusiastic, 

 and I am afraid he is trying to get us so too. But let us be 

 cautious, 



Mr. Ware. After my friend Hersey has referred to me 

 so pleasantly, I certainly should be ungrateful if I did not 

 reply in the same way ; but I am going to discuss the point 

 in seriousness. The cost of silos has been the great bugbear 

 from the beginning. Let me tell you, my friends, that the 

 cost of building a silo is not such a formidable thing. In 

 counting the cost of any thing, I never reckon my own labor, 

 and I believe farmers generally do not. You may think 

 that my labor is not worth much ; but I tell you that I have 

 labored with my hands all my life-time, and, in my earlier 

 years, I think it is safe to say that I did the work of two men 

 in the field every day, so that I know what real labor is. 

 I am not in the habit of reckoning my labor very much 

 in estimating the cost of any thing. I hire men, and that 

 labor has to be paid for. Last winter I commenced with 

 my two men that I hire by the year (in the summer I hire 

 more), and at odd jobs, as a woman would take up her 

 knit ting- work, I went to work with my men digging a hole 



