88 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The silo which Lord Walsingham built in accordance with the 

 suggestion of my neighbor, Consul Henderson, whom I inoculated 

 with the virus live or six j'ears since, was the flrst of 1183 now in 

 Great Britain, and the report of the Ensilage Commission of the 

 Privy Council, of which Lord Walsingham was Chairman, bears 

 witness to the success and importance of the matter. 



Accepting as a fact that the Indian corn plant in Massachusetts 

 will secure its supply of nitrogen in some way or somehow from 

 natural sources, wherever the soil it grows in is fertilized with 



profit, in the East than it could in the West — taking the price which it could 

 be sold for, quality, etc., into consideration: and that it only needed the 

 same kind of "brain and capital" that is engaged in the manufacture of 

 cotton, to demonstrate the fact. 



In reply to your questions — I am like most farmers, I do not keep my 

 accounts enough in detail to enable me to say accurately what any one prod- 

 uct costs. The farm that I have has 10,600 acres ; about one-half in grass 

 and cultivation. I made a crop of tobacco last year of 60,000 pounds. I have 

 2,800 sheep, 150 horses (mainly Clydesdales), and about 600 head of cattle, 

 of which 450 are registered Short Horns, being the largest herd of registered 

 Short Horns in the world; the cost of all are so blended tliat I cannot give 

 you the exact figures for any one product, though I can give an estimate that 

 Is satisfactory to my own mind, but it would be more satisfactory if I could 

 give you the cost in figures, the same as you can the cost of a yard of calico ; 

 but I will give you my estimate, the best that I can. 



Question 1st. — At what cost can you put good corn ensilage into the 

 silo? 



Answer. I estimate that corn which will yield sixty bushels per acre, will 

 make thirty tons of ensilage per acre ; and that it can be grown and put into 

 the silo at .$1.30 per acre [ton is intended]. 



Question 2d. — How many tons will carry a steer one year for green 

 fodder? 



Answer. I think that forty pounds [per daj'] is a large feed for a yearling 

 steer, and seventy-five pounds for a two-year old steer. 



Question 3d. — What do you feed with the green fodder? 



Answer. This depends much on the kind of cattle, and how they are to be 

 handled. If they are to go on grass in the spring, good sweet ensilage will 

 keep them growing all winter ; if they are to go to the butcher in say June 

 or July followinf^, I feed them all of the cotton seed meal and corn (ground 

 with the cob), that they can digest. Cotton seed meal costs twenty dollars 

 per ton at this depot. 



Question 4th. — At what cost can you make a steer ready for the butcher, 

 at twenty months old? 



Answer. Very much depends on the treatment and care of the feeder, and 

 whether fed on grain and ensilage, or partly on grass, as in this part of the 



