No. 4.] GRASSES AND FORAGE CROPS. 209 



Concerning the best of all forage crops, I want to call 

 attention to one point which has been in my mind, and par- 

 ticularly this morning, when the subject was as to how we 

 should meet the western competition. There are in this 

 audience some fanners who have not a silo. There are 

 more who have. I want to call the attention of those who 

 have not one to the tremendous advantage those who have 

 a silo have over them. Experiments carried on in New 

 Jersey a year or two ago show very startling results. They 

 grew fifteen acres of corn, and I think they allowed one- 

 third to ripen ; they cut it, shocked it and husked it ; in due 

 time they shelled it, ground the corn and saved the fodder 

 and fed the meal and the fodder to one set of cows. The 

 other portion, ten acres, was put into the silo, having been 

 cut at the same time. It was fed in that shape to other 

 cows. The difference was this : the corn put into the silo 

 from a given area gave twelve and a fraction per cent more 

 milk than corn from the same field, grown in the same way 

 in every respect, shocked, husked, shelled and fed in the 

 shape of dry stover and meal. The increase in butter was 

 ten and a fraction per cent, and the difference amounted to 

 no less than $10 per acre in favor of the silo. Can those 

 of you who have no silo afford to try to make milk or but- 

 ter another year without one? I do not think you can. 



Now, just a word concerning some of the forage crops 

 which Professor Phelps has mentioned. Alfalfa has been 

 mentioned. We have been experimenting with it in a small 

 way, but as yet without much success. We have sowed it 

 in drills close together and carefully hand-hoed it and hand- 

 weeded it for two years, and more in one experiment, and 

 still it did not produce much. It has been subject to a rust 

 or blight that injured it seriously and cut down the yield. 

 I know it to be an extremely valuable forage crop, and I 

 hope many farms will be found in Massachusetts where it 

 will thrive ; but my experience leads me to say, without 

 intending to discourage your trying it, " Go rather slowly 

 at the beginning, until you find that it succeeds well on 

 your soil and under your conditions." 



Concerning the soy bean, I want to emphasize what Pro- 

 fessor Phelps has said. It will have a future in this coun- 



