IS ENSILAGE A SUCCESS? 157 



is not largoly incorporated in the farm practice, every farm 

 of medium size or larger will count a silo of moderate size 

 a part of its regular equipment, as useful and economical as 

 an ice-house or a manure-spreader. Even if ensilage crops 

 are not regularly raised to fill it, a silo may be found a 

 handy and profitable thing to have on the farm. There are 

 always waste products, green or half-dry, with coarse mate- 

 rials like swale hay, that are generally used for compost or 

 bedding, which may be made into palatable ensilage. A 

 mixture, in equal parts, of rag- weed (Ambrosia artemisiae- 

 folia), swamp grass or swale hay, old corn stalks or straw 

 and second crop green clover, nearly three-fourths of which 

 would otherwise be almost useless, will make, as ensilage, 

 an article of forage surprising to those who have never tried 

 it. 



As an example for using a silo as a sort of catch-all, I 

 may quote the described contents of one filled by Mr. Crom- 

 well, at Rye, New York: " (1) 18 inches deep of green 

 oats; (2) 6 inches of red clover; (3) 6 inches of Canada 

 field peas ; (4) 3 inches of brewers' grain ; (5) 2 feet of 

 whole corn plants, sowed l)roadcast and more rag-weed than 

 maize ; (6)5 inches of second crop grass ; (7) 12 inches of 

 sorghum ; (8) lot of immature corn, cut in short lengths. 

 The ensilage came out pretty acid, but good forage, all 

 eaten up clean." And for one, I have not yet abandoned all 

 hope of seeing the pulp of the beet root coming back to the 

 farms in large quantity from the neighboring sugar factory, 

 in various parts of New England. 



There are seasons, too, when a crop of clover, or a few 

 loads of half-made hay, are certain to be lost if field curing 

 is depended upon ; at such times an empty silo may be used 

 to save the whole. Sprouted oat-sheaves and rye "grown" 

 in the straw can likewise be preserved by the silo and 

 transformed into a valuable article of forage. It is to the 

 vicissitudes of haying and harvesting in Great Britain, with- 

 in recent years, that the great British interest in this subject 

 is mainly due. 



Although individuals and experiment stations have done 

 good work in the United States, in the study of ensilage and 

 the practical value of the system, there has been here noth- 



