508 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



Ensilage Adapted to the Southern States. There seems to be no reason why 

 the agricultural interests of the South may not be particularly benefited by this system, which 

 has been proven to be as practicable in that climate as at the North. If any doubts arise with 

 reference to this subject, it may be well to remember the fact, that the climate of that part of 

 France where Monsieur Goffart has been so very successful in preserving ensilage in silos, is 

 about the temperature of Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, etc., and if cut at the proper time 

 and ensilaged with care, there is no reason to doubt that this system will prove a success 

 throughout the entire Southern section. By means of this new departure in Southern agri 

 culture, one of the great needs in the culture of the soil in nearly all the Southern States 

 farm manure may be obtained at a low cost. This may be accomplished by providing an 

 inexpensive food in abundance for stock, whereby a large number of farm animals can be 

 kept, where now there are but few. 



Stock-raising and profitable farming cannot well be separated in any country, or section 

 of a country, where the soil will not produce spontaneously, and where a good supply of 

 either commercial fertilizers or farm manures are required to produce a moderate crop. Corn- 

 fodder, sorghum, millet, and other crops used in ensilaging can be grown to perfection in the 

 Southern States. The varieties of corn used for fodder at the South are of heavy growth, 

 with leaves long and broad, the stalks when in full bloom being peculiarly sweet and nutri 

 tious, and are also the kinds most used for this purpose at the North, while the cow-pea, 

 growing as it does in the greatest luxuriance at the South, would be admirably adapted for 

 the silo, if cut while in full bloom, with the pods just forming. Being fully equal in nutritive 

 value to clover, an acre of rich land will produce about twice the amount that it would of 

 clover. 



If the silo is a desideratum at the North, where grasses of the best quality, and clover 

 grow in abundance, how much more essential is it at the South, where the best grasses do 

 not thrive well, or require frequent renewing. With ensilage as a new departure in Southern 

 agriculture, the South may become a stock-producing section, with all the attendant benefi 

 cial results, and the resources of this part of the country, as well as those of the North, thus 

 more perfectly developed. 



Analysis of Corn when Cut in a Green State. By summarizing various anal 

 yses made of the different parts of the corn-plants, as given in Mr. Brown s translation of 

 M. Goffart s work on Ensilage, it is found that the ear with cob and stem, forms about one- 

 fifth of the whole plant, either green or dry. That the leaves contain over forty per cent, of 

 the solid material of the whole plant, also three-fourths of the mineral element of the plant. 

 That the stalk, leaves, and tassel contain nearly three times as much nutritive value as the 

 ear, taken when the ear is in the milk. That the ear and cob contain but little more than 

 two-thirds as much sugar as the leaves, and less than one-sixth as much as the entire plant; 

 also a little more than one-fourth as much as the stalk. That the leaves contain one-fourth 

 more phosphoric acid than the ear, and that the latter contains but thirty-two per cent, of the 

 entire amount of this element in the whole plant. That the ears contain only six per cent, of 

 the entire sulphuric acid of the plant, and but eighteen per cent, of the chlorine. That the 

 leaves contain more than half as much potash as the ears, the stalks nearly as much as the 

 ears, and that the ear, cob, and stem contain but about forty-two per cent, of the potash in 

 the entire plant. Iron was not found in the ears, while but a small amount of silica was 

 present there. When corn is preserved by the ensilage process, all these nutritive elements 

 are retained as food, and the waste that attends the drying, storing, and feeding of the dried 

 product is entirely avoided. 



