inch or half inch lengths. My position on this point is precisely 

 what it was one year ago, namely : To those that have power, 

 whether horse or steam, and who do not object to having a few 

 hundred dollars invested in extra machinery, I would say, cut 

 your ensilage ! it is more convenient to feed, it comes out of the 

 silo with less labor, the extra cost in storing will be offset by the 

 convenience in handling, a7id^ in cast of ra?tk grow mg corn, of the 

 Western or Southern varieties, by decreased waste in feeding ; 

 to those who have no conveniences for cutting and who are hes- 

 itating to invest in the needed machinery, I would most emphat- 

 ically say, build a silo and fill it with whole corn, packing care- 

 fully, and you will have a first-class article well preserved, and 

 if the corn is of medium growth little will be wasted in feeding; 

 no farmer should hesitate, for a moment, if the case has resolved 

 itself into a question of whole ensilage or no ensilage, in fact, I 

 feel certain that, in many cases, even when a machine could be 

 hired to come at the right time and cut the corn, it would prove 

 unprofitably from the financial point of view alone. 



3d. Rapid filling is not only unnecessary but it is objec- 

 tionable, for two reasons : first, to the average farmer it means 

 the hiring of considerable outside help, both of men and teams, 

 and, second, I am satisfied that better ensilage, whether whole 

 or cut, will result from slow filling than from rapid. 



4th. The question as to whether there is an advantage in 

 selecting seed for ensilage corn is one of great importance and 

 one that has been too much neglected ; there was a time, not 

 wholly past either, when bulk and weight ^ox^ the only measures 

 of value that were supposed to apply to ensilage crops. ToJis 

 per acres, regardless oi feeding value per ton, were regarded as the 

 best indication. This is wrong, and to-day the most experienced 

 users are finding that immature, watery varieties, though stand- 

 ing higher on the scale of ions per acre are really lower on the 

 true scale oi feeding value in ihe manger. 



The general scope of our work for 1887 was as follows : To 

 determine the most valuable variety of corn for our climate and 

 locality ; to compare the cost of production and feeding valiic of 

 such varieties ; to note the relation of crop composition to de- 

 gree of maturity ; to compare the relative cost of harvesting corn^ 

 both for cut and whole ensilage, and for the crib and fodder 

 stack* to determine the relative exhaustion of the soil occasion- 

 ed by the varieties experimented with. 



