290 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I adopted the plan of going through the field and gathering 

 the corn when it was just glazed over, throwing it upon the 

 ground, and cutting my fodder right up and putting it into 

 the silo. I found that in that way I got very good ensilage. 

 This year I took an acre for an experiment. I have kept an 

 accurate account of the cost of everything, — plowing, 

 harrowing, tilling, and the dressing put on the field. I 

 planted my corn three feet apart one way and eighteen 

 inches the other, with four grains in the hill. The variety 

 was what they call the cap^ped Qanada. I got eight tons of 

 ensilage from that acre, which, according to the professor's 

 statement, is worth $4 a ton, making $32. The whole cost of 

 that acre, including the interest on the value of the land and 

 the taxes, amounted to $32.10. I got forty-five bushels of 

 corn, which cost me just ten cents. I think I can do it 

 again right along every year, and if we can raise corn in 

 New England for less than a cent a bushel I think we can 

 do a o;ood thinof. According to the statements that have 

 been made of the value of ensilage, we can raise corn so that 

 the ensilage will pay the whole expense of raising it and we 

 get our corn for nothing. We can get from forty-five to 

 seventy bushels to the acre in that way. I do not know 

 thiit any other corn than that small Canada would ear out 

 and perfect itself planted so close together. INlind you, 

 that is about three times as close as we generally plant corn. 

 You get a large amount of ensilage and that corn will perfect - 

 itself just as well planted close in that way as it will planted 

 further apart. 



Question. How much forage are you able to sell from 

 that small farm besides supporting those seventy or seventy- 

 five cows? 



]\Ir. Smith. Last year we sold about sixty tons of hay, 

 but the year previous we did not sell any, so that to state 

 it fairly, inasmuch as we sold some hay that we had left 

 over the previous year, I should say we sold between forty 

 and fifty tons, as we had twelve or fifteen tons left over. 



;Mr. Myrick. How much ashes do you put on your 

 mowing land? 



Mr. Smith. We put on from twenty-five to thirty-five 

 bushels of unleached ashes and about a hundred pounds of 



