II 6 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



This dairy establishment can be built, Silos and all, 

 for less than one-half the cost of the necessary storage 

 and stable room, when the same amount of stock are 

 kept upon hay and grain. 



The corn-fodder and green rye necessary to keep the 

 118 cows, calves, and yearlings or sheep, can be raised 

 upon 30 acres of good land, while upon a hay and grain 

 diet it would require at least 1 1 8 acres of the very best 

 land to keep the cows alone. 



Ensilage will re-people and restore the old deserted 

 farms of New England. Thousands of these farms, with 

 comfortable buildings, can be bought for less than half 

 the improvements would cost. 



The hitherto insurmountable difficulty has been to get 

 a stock of manure to begin with, there being none for 

 sale in the back counties, and the transportation from the 

 cities would make it cost too much. I propose to show 

 how that obstacle can be overcome. Let the purchaser 

 of one of these old farms commence operations in the 

 spring. He will require a pair of good strong horses, and 

 need a couple of cows, a dozen or two of fowls, and ought 

 to have four good breeding-sows and a Berkshire boar. 

 Turn the cows and the hogs out to pasture ; cut down 

 and burn the bushes upon the best of the old grass-fields ; 

 the last of May and the first of June break up 15 acres, 

 turning under the green growth ; if there is a good thick 

 sod, it would pay to sow broadcast 100 pounds of nitrate 

 of soda to the acre about the 2Oth of April : this will 

 stimulate the grass to grow, and give a much larger 

 green crop to turn under. After breaking, harrow twice 

 with the Randall disk-harrow, then with the smoothing- 

 harrow. Plant in drills four feet apart, using half a 

 bushel of Mammoth Ensilage seed-corn to the acre, 

 and distribute in the drills 200 to 300 pounds of Bradley's 



