DOMESTIO ANIMALB. 728 



astonished my neighbors, who feed in the old way. The butcher says the cattle 

 slaughtered well, and the meat was remarkably fine and gave every satisfaction. 

 The use of poor ensilage, made from corn half ripe or frost bitten, like mine 

 was, I have reason for believing, would not give such satisfactory results, as if 

 I had had more perfect material. I am one who believes that to make good 

 ensilage the corn should be cut at the right time, cut the right length, put away 

 ill a good silo and covered over nicely, and then well and thoroughly weighted 

 down. The seed planted should be the Southern gourdseed, drilled in rows 30 

 to 40 inches apart, and the ground cultivated the same as any corn. The ensil- 

 age should be cut % to % of an inch long. It is important to have a good, 

 water-tight silo and heavy weighting — 300 to 350 lbs. to the square foot of sur- 

 face. I believe in giving the animals all they will eat up clean, be it more or 

 less. Contentment means fat in the bovine tribe, as well as riches in the human. 



Remarks. — The author agrees with this man in New Jersey, that "what is 

 worth doing is worth doing well," if you can; if you have not the means to 

 build the best silo, build a small one till you can do better, but don't fail to try 

 it according to your means and ability, by which you will get more means. 

 That is the object of the author in writing this book. "What it may pay me is 

 nothing as to what it will pay others, if they heed its teachings. I would never 

 have written it for what it will pay me, but the belief in what good it will do 

 others has made it a delight, and the labor endurable. 



Ensilage Congress, Report of in 1886, Held in New York.— 

 We will say, in closing the ensilage question with the following report, that we 

 are indebted to a Frenchman by the name of August Goffart, for the discovery 

 of this plan of preserving fodder in its green state, some 20 years ago, which, 

 for economy or saving financially, for the farming community, probably, 

 has not its superiority in the whole century, or for the past 100 years; and it is 

 now admitted that he who does not make use of it, now, stands in his own light. 

 The following facts were stated by those members of the Congress or conven- 

 tion, who had given it a fair trial: 



" Alfred Reid, of Providence, gave the result of his experiments at feeding 

 ensilage to twenty-eight head of cattle. He gave them three times a day all 

 they could eat. He had put into his silos, corn, rye, grass, clover, Hungarian 

 grass and sorghum. He gave the details of his expenditures on four acres of 

 corn. The total cost in the field was $159.51 to raise 66 tons and 427 pounds 

 of corn fodder. The cost of getting from the field to the silos was $69.37 for 

 the 66 tons. The total cost of raising, carting and packing was $3.45 per ton. 



"A Mr, Roberts, of Poughkeepsie. asserted that with ensilage he had kept 

 twenty-six cows, where without it he hpd kept but six. Probably this was 

 imder highly favorable circumstances, though fresh, green fodder undoubtedly 

 yields more than double the nourishment of dry. Cattle eat ensilage food 

 ravenously, and it fattens, and increases the production of milk. 



"Some silos, or pits, are built 50 by 20 feet in size and bricked up. 

 Others are made of boards, tongued and grooved and lined with tar paper. 

 When built in bams they are said to work '•""ellently, as the frost is more ea» 



