CHAPTER XXI. 

 GROWING ENSILAGE. 



AMOUNT OF LAND REQUIRED. 



TWENTY tons per acre is a good average crop on 

 land in a good state of cultivation. The yield per 

 acre varies from twelve to fifty tons. If you have 

 built a silo with capacity for your herd as above, it 

 is easy to compute the number of tons it will require 

 for six months' feeding at forty cubic feet per ton. 

 As to how many acres you will require, that all de- 

 pends upon the fertility of your soil, and the only 

 way to tell is by trying. Make a liberal estimate, 

 If you have too much, it is not necessarily wasted. 

 It can be shocked and husked as field corn. 



PREPARING THE GROUND. 



If possible, plow in the autumn and sow to rye. 

 Top dress the rye during the winter direct from the 

 stables. Set stakes so as to continue on snow if 

 necessary. Next spring plow the rye under, and 

 as described in chapter on green manure, page 18, 

 this green crop of rye plowed under will be the 

 cheapest possible fertilizer, accumulating for you 

 all the fall, winter, and spring. In this manner, 



