20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Ensilage. 



No better use can be made of the corn crop than its con- 

 version into ensilao;e. I have never known of a case of silage 

 practice being abandoned after three consecutive years of 

 trial. Figured on the most expensive way of calculating 

 cost, by charging up all of the manure and commercial fer- 

 tilizer used on a crop, I cannot make it cost more than two 

 dollars and seventy-live cents per ton, packed in the silo. 

 Three tons of such ensilage are worth one ton of hay. In 

 Southborough the ensilage has no saleable value off the farm, 

 while hay may be sold at from fifteen to eighteen and twenty 

 dollars per ton. Any land that will grow two tons of hay 

 per acre will raise at least twenty tons of ensilage corn, or 

 about two and a half times the dry matter of hay. Mani- 

 festly we cannot grow any cheaper food on a Massachusetts 

 farm than ensilage corn, or some of the northern varieties of 

 yellow corn. What is true of our condition is true also of 

 the other New England States and New York. In the East 

 •oat feed in all forms is expensive, even when grown on the 

 farm ; if sold, an oat crop would realize a good price. In 

 seeding down to grass, an oat crop might very properly be 

 taken as a catch crop, and be converted into oat hay ; or a crop 

 of peas and oats might be planted, to still further vary the win- 

 ter bill of fare for the cows. The oat crop is a most valuable 

 adjunct to the feeder's resources. There is a combination in 

 the oat plant which adds much to the flavor of milk, its cream 

 and butter. Animals eating it are improved in health, and 

 give a more alkaline milk, which keeps longer and is more 

 dio-estible than the ordinary kinds met with in the market. 



The question of cost of farm crops in the West is so often 

 raised that it may be well to present in detail the figures 

 relating to the corn crop in Iowa, as that is the staple grain 

 production of the State. According to the latest and most 

 reliable information published by the Bureau of Statistics of 

 Iowa, the average cost of an acre of corn in the ninety-nine 

 counties is $10.33, or 30 cents per bushel. This includes 

 shelling and marketing. Less shelling and marketing, the 

 figures are $8.59, as shown in the following table ; — 



