144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



According to the foregoing table, three tons of the very 

 best ensilage (No. 6.) do not equal a ton of hay, chemically, 

 as food. But farmers, as the result of practical feeding 

 tests, generally agree in considering two and a half or three 

 tons of corn ensilage equal in its effects to a ton of hay, and 

 some observant feeders say that two tons is nearer right. 

 An eminent English author says, on this point (Smith's 

 "Veterinary Hygiene," p. 224), that men competent to 

 judge, " estimate the value of green forage, well preserved 

 in a silo, at somewhat more than one-third, weight for 

 weight, of the value of the same material made into hay under 

 favorable conditions." On this basis, — the ratio three to one 

 being, in my opinion, a perfectly safe one to depend upon, — 

 when hay can be sold at $12 to $18 per ton and replaced 

 with ensilage, the latter becomes worth from $4 to $6 per 

 ton, which is two or three times its necessary cost. The 

 immediate profit is thus at least one hundred per cent. ; but 

 the increased production per acre of ensilage over hay is 

 another source of profit. John Gould of Ohio reports 

 fields in his neighborhood producing twenty-five tons of 

 corn ensilage per acre, which proved equivalent in feeding 

 value to eight tons of hay per acre, or three times as much 

 as the land ever produced. In actual practice, it has been 

 proved that when ten acres of good land are in mowing and 

 yielding twenty-five tons of hay, two acres of this land can 

 be devoted to corn ensilage, and the same number of ani- 

 mals being supported, fed half ensilage and half hay, there 

 will be at least ten tons of surplus hay, which can be sold 

 for enough to pay all the expenses of the change, including 

 a permanent silo, to hold fifty tons, built out of the first 

 year's profits. 



According to the most approved feeding tables, a cow of 

 900 pounds weight should have at least 25 pounds of 

 average hay for a day's ration, and this will furnish some- 

 thing over 22 pounds of dry substance. But the same cow, 

 fed corn ensilage of average quality, will need only 65 or 

 75 pounds per day, and this usually contains but 14 pounds 

 of dry substance, and never as much as 20 pounds. Chem- 

 istry and animal physiology say that this is insuflficient feed- 

 ing. But the cow says it is enough. There is certainly 



