42 Farmer £ Institutes. 



Two small silos are, Mr. Washburn thinks, better than one large one. Mr. Jon^s 

 of Portland Me., cuts his ensilage crops at any time and tramps them down m 

 (he silo He employs two months in filling his silo. He thinks it an advantage 

 to take a long time filling, and gives the ensilage a thorough treading every morn- 

 ing Clover millet, green rve and oats can all be successfully preserved in the 

 form of ensilage. Mr. Washburn raised in 1880 for ensilage purposes fifteen tons 

 of corn to the acre, and seven tons of millet to the acre. Last season he raised 

 eighteen tons of corn to the acre and thirteen tons of millet to the acre. The 

 whole cost of corn up to time it is put into silo, is $1.33 per ton. Mr, Washburn 

 prefers to cut his ensilage one half an inch in length. Mr. Mills of Pompton, N. 

 J , cuts his ensilage three inches in length. Mr. Washburn has fed his herd of 

 forty animals for nearly five months on ensilage. The daily cost of feeding each 

 animal is less than twelve cents a day. They have steadily gained in flesh, and 

 their butter in color and flavor is as good as when they had pasture feed last Sep- 

 tember. In connection with ensilage only three pounds of grain to an animal are 

 fed daily. He feeds ensilage occasionally to horses. They eat it readily and thrive 

 on it as'well as cows. None but those who have no knowledge of ensilage con- 

 demn it. 



After Mr. Washburn had finished reading his paper, the subject was opened 

 to discussion, and a number of questions were answered by Mr. Washburn. 

 Among other things he said he did not claim that ensilage alone will do for fod- 

 der, when milk is desired. The proper feed is part hay and part ensilage. 



On motion of Merritt I. Wheeler of Great Harrington, a vote of thanks was 

 given Mr. Washburn. The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 o'clock. 



TWELFTH INSTITUTE. 



The Twelfth Farmers' Institute was held at the Town Hall, Great Barrington, 

 on Tuesday morning, November 14th. The attendance, though not large, was 

 made up of men actively interested in all that affects the interest of the farming 

 community. After calling the meeting to order the President introduced Presi- 

 dent Chadbourne of Amherst Agricultural College, who delivered a sound, practical 

 address on " THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS." Dr. Chadbourne said: I 

 have no doubt that I have before me the best part of the Housatonic Agricultural 

 Society, not the largest but the best, for it is the part that is active, alive. In 

 every society, as in our vines and trees, there is a living and a dead part. We 

 prune away the dead, and depend on the living. I should be willing to come here 

 to speak to one man if he be a live man, for a live man with a practical idea will 

 plant and water that idea and make it bring forth fruit. 



The first thing that impresses me as I go among our agricultural communities, 

 is that there is more thought bestowed on the cattle and the crops than there is 

 on the young farmers ; the latter are not as well cared for as the former. Yet 

 cattle and crops are nothing except as they are the foundations for making good 

 men and good women. This is the idea that underlies all agricultural education 

 and the Agricultural College ; to teach the farmers to raise all possible crops, so 

 as to make the best possible life, and make it worth the having. There is more 

 life in one day properly lived, than in a year of vegetation. Life is measured by 

 worthy acts and worthy thoughts. 



So I did not go to Amherst from Williams to carry out a new idea, but an old 

 one, that of making men. The ordinary colleges have a noble work to do, but 

 they do not do it all, nor in the best manner. The Agricultural College com- 

 pletes the work. The ordinary college takes young men from labor; that is, 

 from manual labor and from practical life. A rich man whom you all know, a 

 man of scientific training, said to me that he had sent his boy to school for seven- 

 teen years, and now the boy does not know how to do anything. Is that the re- 

 sult we want to reach? Is it a worthy result ? It is not. It shows that there needs 

 to be an overturning. The teaching and traditions of college life tend to remove 

 men from practical life and affiliate them with the learned professions. The boy 

 goes through college, becomes a professor, and we get men to teach men who 



