510 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



age of that food will prove more economical, since a much larger number of cattle can be 

 kept on the same farm than before, while with the increased supply of manure thus obtained, 

 the farmer can enrich his soil to the extent of making it much more available, and conse 

 quently profitable, than it has ever previously been. With less labor, and a consequent 

 saving of time, there follows, as a natural consequence, more time for reading and self- 

 improvement to the farmer, taking from his life much of the toil and drudgery that has so 

 long characterized it, with a like benefit to the farmer s wife, whose lot is often the harder of 

 the two, she working early and late to accomplish each day s duties, with the added burden 

 of more hired help upon the farm to care for during the haying-season. 



This new departure, then, means to the farmer less labor, less expense, better stock, an 

 increased capacity on the farm for keeping stock, a larger supply of yard-manure, better 

 crops, increased fertility and productiveness of the land, preserving the nutritive quality of 

 the forage that has previously been wasted in the drying process, a better income from the 

 farm, more home comforts, more time for reading, and the means of intellectual improvement. 

 These are some of the advantages that experience and experiment in this new departure of 

 agriculture seem to promise, and which we trust will be secured to the farmers of our country 

 after the test of a few years, which will be necessary to secure its general adoption. 



Opinions and Experiments from Various Authentic Sources Bespecting 

 the Ensilage System. Among the many favorable opinions current respecting the 

 ensilage system, we have space to insert but a few, and these are from sources that would 

 seem to be a sufficient guarantee for their reliability. It is often a fact that the advocates of 

 a new and favorite system are too enthusiastic in their praise of the same, and place an exag 

 gerated estimate upon its merits. Although this may or may not be true with reference to 

 some of the advocates of the ensilage system, we know that there are those among them, and 

 by far the larger number, who are strictly practical men, and whose judgment and conclu 

 sions, as derived from actual experience, can be accepted without discount. In a letter to 

 Mr. J. B. Brown, Monsieur Goffart writes that the cost of the maize he was then feeding was 

 ten cents per 225 pounds, and the crop was 36 tons per acre. He says: 



&quot; The longer experience I have, the more I am convinced that this method of feeding 

 cattle is destined to render the greatest service to the agricultural interest. From October, 

 1878, to October, 1879, I fed the one hundred animals in my stable exclusively upon ensil 

 aged maize during winter, and concurrently with fresh maize during the season when 1 had 

 it. The animals have always enjoyed the most excellent health, and I can testify that they 

 had more appetite for ensilaged maize than for fresh food, whatever kind it might be. The 

 cows fed with fresh maize give milk of excellent quality, and the butter is of exquisite taste; 

 fed upon ensilaged maize, the milk is still very good, and its quantity undiminished, but the 

 butter, while being still of excellent quality, is not quite so fine. But it should be remem 

 bered that, whatever is the food of the cows in winter, butter is never quite so good as that 

 which is made during the fine weather (la belle saisony 



In regard to the cost of this fodder, he says: 



&quot;Taking six per cent, of the weight of the animal for its daily ration, I arrive at an 

 expense of 3.6 cents per day to feed an animal of 1,400 pounds. I do not know any kind of 

 food that costs so little as my ensilaged maize, and it was a bad year for raising it, owing to 

 the wet, and labor was unusually expensive, on account of the high price of wine.&quot; 



Mr. C. W. Mills claims that the system of ensilage will revolutionize the present system 

 of farming. He says : &quot; Last summer my pasturage run short, and being out of ensilage, I 

 cut oats when in blossom from five acres and put that in the silo, and subjected it to pressure. 

 It sustained my milch cows (about 80 in number) for a space of six weeks. I had no trouble 

 except in contact with the stone wall. I kept last year one hundred and twenty head of 

 horned cattle and twelve horses, from October 15th to May 15th upon the product of twelve 



