FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 185 



ered, I am an enthusiastic believer in the silo. I believe it is one of the 

 most important adjuncts of our diversified farming. 



My plan in planting — I have tried two ways, and am not exactly satis- 

 fied with either one, and I would like the opinions of representative 

 farmers. My flrst practice was to plant with a 11 hoe drill, stop up all but 

 three feeders, and so have rows 33 inches apart. The other way was to 

 plant hills thirty inches one way and forty-six the other, and that is prac- 

 tically the same thing as rows, four feet apart. 



My plan of filling a silo has been to rush it — hire additional help. I 

 use a Smalley cutter, with fourteen-inch knife, and, taking the ordinary 

 corn, I can put through seventy-five tons in an eleven hours' run. It has 

 been my policy to hire all the men and teams I could, and rush it as fast 

 as possible. 



My silo is square. If I build another, I should investigate thoroughly. 

 I don't like mine; I think there are better forms than the square. 



One great source of trouble I have is in keeping up the fertility; it is 

 one of the most serious problems before the farmer today. The matter 

 of fertilizers. I cannot make the barnyard manure I want, though 1 save 

 every ounce. When it comes to clover, I haven't had a catch in six 

 years. How shall we keep up the fertility? If you can make three tons 

 of silage, that is an average crop, three to three and a half tons per acre, 

 you increase the feeding capacity of your land very much, in sustaining 

 stock, and are thus enabled to make more fertilizer. That always holds 

 true, that wherever you can keep more stock you increase the fertilizer, 

 and that is a very important consideration. 



I would like to ask Mr. Butterfield a question. I think he stated that 

 there was one-tenth difference in the nutriment of the silage and the dry 

 fodder. As a usual thing, the com is cut with the feed, in building a silo. 

 Wouldn't that com more than overbalance? Wouldn't it be cheaper to 

 feed the dry com and the fodder separate? 



Mr. Butterfield: You are comparing com and fodder, put in the silo, 

 with dry corn fodder, without the corn? I did not understand that it 

 was compared that way. 



Mr. Martin: You compared the silage without the com, to the dry 

 fodder. 



Mr. Butterfield: That was taken from a test made at the Experiment 

 Station. The question of the loss of com in the silo is something thnt 

 has not been fully tested, and that was one of the things I had suggested, 

 in regard to further scientific work. There is something going on this 

 winter, I think, which may result in developments of interest. It is not 

 known what the loss of corn would be, with corn ripened on the field. 

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