IS ENSILAGE A SUCCESS? 129 



of seed corn will vary from one-half bushel to a bushel for 

 an acre. 



It is economy to stimulate the young plant and crowd the 

 growth by feeding generously. Super-phosphate or any 

 good commercial fertilizer may be applied in the drill. But 

 I have never succeeded in growing a large crop of ensilage 

 corn without plenty of ammonia, and that, too, in the form 

 of animal manure. Commercial fertilizers alone, even when 

 largely used, have not, in my experience, produced satisfac- 

 tory results with corn grown for the greatest possible weight 

 per acre. The plant should approach maturity before being 

 cut for the silo ; this rule should be applied to any crop 

 grown for ensilage. For the best effects in feeding, we want 

 plants that are just about to perfect their seed. In corn, 

 wait till the ears are fully formed, or till the kernel is glazed, 

 before cutting. Thus treated, a crop of twenty to thirty 

 tons of green fodder, and an almost equal quantity of ensi- 

 lage, may be obtained fi'om an acre. Crops of thirty tons 

 per acre are rare, however, and the average is rather below 

 twenty tons than above it. There are publishers who do 

 not hesitate to sell books professing to j)reach the true gospel 

 of ensilage, which books tell you it is easy to raise not only 

 thirty, but forty, fifty and even sixty tons of ensilage corn 

 per acre. And every year I meet reputable citizens who 

 assure me, with every appearance of good faith, that they 

 have actually raised forty tons or more to the acre. Now, 

 I do not wish to directly deny such statements ; but I do 

 say, that while I have seen many acres of good ensilage 

 corn, I know I never yet saw thirty-two tons of green corn 

 growing on an acre, — have yet to be convinced that thirty- 

 two tons ever did grow on an acre, — and at present I never 

 expect to believe that one acre in New England ever pro- 

 duced forty tons. John Gould of Ohio, a man of accuracy 

 in writing, reports twenty-three tons of ensilage corn per 

 acre from eleven acres, and that this, with the product of five 

 acres of field corn and one ton of wheat «* shorts," kept 

 fifty-four head of cattle and three horses through the winter ; 

 the field corn was fed as cob-meal and its stalks dry.* He 



• If the winter comprised six months, the fifty-seven animals thus kept that period 

 on the crops from sixteen acres, each received daily fifty pounds of dry corn fodder, 

 two and one-half pounds of cob-meal and about two ounces of bran. This seems 



