118 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICQLTURE 
Now, gentlemen, I am delighted to have been with you for a little 
while this afternoon, and I thank you for your very kind attention. 
The President: We have with us this afternoon a gentleman 
from Ohio, who will address us on the subject, ''Silos and Ensilage 
for Feed Cattle," Humphrey Jones. 
SILOS AND ENSILAGE FOR BEEF CATTLE. 
HUMPHREY JOXES, WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, OHIO. 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Association: 
I assume that every member of this Association and every man present 
who is engaged in the stock feeding or stock raising business is engaged 
in it purely as a business proposition and not in the gratification of any 
fad or fancy, as we sometimes find in other occupations. I assume 
further that every farmer that is engaged in that business is prosecuting 
it for one or the other or both of two principal purposes: first, the 
profitable conversion of the products of his farm into meat, and second, 
the upbuilding and conserving of the fertility of his land. And, as has 
been told you very forcibly here this afternoon, the second purpose, as 
is going to be appreciated generally, is scarcely less important than the 
first, because the man who is simply raising crops off his lands and 
selling them or feeding them to live stock, without any particular view 
to maintaining the fertility of his land, is not a farmer, but is simply 
a miner, and it is only a matter of time until his farm will be mined out. 
The great source and means of maintaining the fertility of these lauds, 
according to the world's experience in agriculture, is by the handling o? 
live stock. No other means has been demonstrated to be so effective, and 
this is the method adopted in England and on the continent. However 
that may be, the condition of sentiment among farmers now is not such 
that a margin based merely upon maintaining the fertility of the farm 
will appeal strongly to them; we don't yet fully appreciate the importance 
of that matter; and if there is anything to be said in favor of the use of 
ensilage in beef production that will meet with favorable consideration 
and action upon the part of the average farmer, it must appeal to him as 
a business proposition, yielding immediate profit to him. 
I might say now, in advance of proceeding further, that I assume that 
you who are interested enough in this subject to have your officers invite 
some one to come seven or eight hundred miles to speak upon it are not 
expecting any special plea in favor of any theory, or a mere statement 
of the use of ensilage in the production of beef; but what you desire is 
a full and a fair statement of all the material matters relating to it, so 
that you individually can make up your judgment as to whether or not 
there is anything of practical value in it for you. If I were merely to 
tell you- the things that are favorable to it, without givin r the other side 
of the question, it might be as misleading to you as an absolute mis- 
statement of fact in reference to it. I therefore want to give you as 
candidly and fairly as I can all that experience has taught us in refer- 
ence to the subject. 
