512 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



quality of the milk has improved from that made while the cows were in pasture, showing an 

 improvement of over ten degrees by the lactometer. The butter is fully equal in color, flavor, 

 and in every way to that made from the same cows in September, while at pasture. 



In feeding our ensilage last season, we found a decided superiority in the millet over 

 the corn, though it was so mixed that we could make no accurate trial. Analysis shows that 

 the feeding value of millet compares to that of corn as 30 to 17, when both are cut at the 

 most suitable state, and clover and rye vary but little in value from millet, so that should the 

 millet cost to raise and ensilage twice as much as corn, it still would be about as profitable in 

 the end. There is much said at present by scientists and others about the great loss in ensi 

 lage by fermentation, the sugar, glucose, and starch, almost wholly disappearing, leaving all 

 the water and fiber and a small amount of alcohol, with some other nearly valueless constitu 

 ent, making, in their estimation, a food of about the value of fine sawdust. Now, when I go 

 into my neighbor s stables, and see the amount of dried corn fodder that it requires to feed 

 his cattle and see the amount that is wasted and refused by the stock, when I see their condi 

 tion and amount of milk they yield, and compare it all with our experience with ensilage, 

 I think it would not take a very wise man to decide which is the better method. 



Another great point made by many farmers, is the great cost to build silos. Now, my 

 silos that will hold about 375 tons, have cost me less than $460, and I certainly would like 

 to see the barn that will hold the equivalent of this three hundred and seventy-five tons of 

 ensilage, in hay or dried corn fodder, that was built for the same money. I have yet to 

 learn of the first man that has built a silo and not proved it a success. With me ensilage 

 has proved a success, in its relative first cost as compared with hay or dried corn fodder, in 

 its comparative value in feeding, and in its results in the production of milk, butter, and 

 beef.&quot; 



Numerous other authorities might be cited in favor of this system if necessary, but 

 enough has been given to prove the preserving of fodder by ensilage a success thus far in 

 practice, and to render it safe to predict for it a general adoption by the farmers of the 

 country before many years shall have passed away. Although a long time may elapse before 

 it will entirely supersede the curing of hay by the long-practiced method, yet the present indi 

 cations are that it is destined to do so eventually. 



GOOD SEED. 



IF there is any one thing that will cause the agricultural products of the soil to deteriorate 

 more than another, it is in the use of inferior seed. The custom of some farmers, of 

 selecting seed at random, and of using successively, year after year, seed grown upon 

 the same soil, or that produced by chartce, or with little or no cultivation, or perhaps seed 

 that has lost its vitality from being kept over for several seasons, is, to say the least, not an 

 economic one. 



The poor quality of seed and light yield of crops may often be justly attributed to the care 

 lessness or indifference of farmers and gardeners with respect to that which they plant. With 

 the best soil and the most skilled cultivation, poor seed cannot, in the nature of things, give 

 good results ; hence, unless the seed planted be of proper quality, the labor and fertilizers 

 bestowed upon the crop are in a great measure lost. 



The average yield of ordinary crops is much below what it ought to be, or would be, pro 

 viding more pains were taken in the selection and cultivation of the seed that produced 

 them. Plants for seed raising should not only have the best possible culture, but they should 



