132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



without packing, usually settled from one-fourth to one- 

 third its bulk.* 



The average cost, all items included, of raising corn and 

 converting it into ensilage ready to feed is not far from two 

 dollars per ton. The harvesting expense alone, which is the 

 main item, has been variously reported at 10 cents, 15, 33, 

 50, 87^ cents and $1 per ton, but the low figures are found 

 not to include allowance for labor of the farmer, his teams 

 and regular help, and therefore it is really the extra outlay 

 and not the total cost of the work that is thus stated. 

 The Messrs. Smiths & Powell of Syracuse, as the result of 

 a very careful acpount with a crop of 18 tons per acre, re- 

 port the cost of cultivation at 50 cents a ton and of harvest- 

 ing, 87 cents a ton, — a total of $1.37, to which being added 

 the use of land and other proper charges, would bring the 

 amount to about |2 per ton. In a good many instances 

 I have known of ensilage sold in the silo at $2 to $2.50 

 per ton, and this indicates that its market value, so far as it 

 yet has any, is just about the same as its average cost. 



III. — Filling tlie Silo. 



In connection with this part of the work the greatest 

 opportunity occurs for system and economy. The location 

 of the growing crops, with reference to the silo, and the 

 arrangements for cutting, loading, hauling, chaffing, storing 

 and pressing, require good judgment and close supervision. 

 It is useless to discuss details, so much will depend upon 

 the circumstances peculiar to every case. But it is certain 

 that, with like conditions, one man will make the operation 

 of harvesting a job costing a dollar a ton, and another man 

 will so order and manage the same work as to do it with 

 comparative ease and at half the cost. 



Rainy weather and wet material need not interrupt the 



* Several trials have been conducted by me with a view to determining with some 

 exactness the rehitive feeding value of different forage plants in the form of ensilage, 

 but thus far without satisfactoiy results. I find the consumption of the different 

 articles depends upon the tastes of the animals to which they are fed, rather than 

 any law relating to their nutritious properties. So I have as yet only found that 

 generally more ensilage of corn will be eaten than of rye or clover, less of cow peas 

 than the others named, and of Himgarlan more than all other kinds; but this Hun- 

 garian grass ensilage was the best silo product I ever saw, — apparently the true 

 " ])rown hay " of Germany and Austria, at its best. 



