No. 4.] SOILING AND SUMMER SILAGE. 55 



In tliis system we are obliged to use from one to two hours 

 a (lay, four to six days in the week, to cut and cart to the 

 stable sufficient green feed for 20 cows, which for five months 

 figures up to quite a large yearly expense. And then what 

 about the other seven winter months where one has no green 

 feed or ensilage to help balance the ration ? Just hay and 

 grain alone is expensive winter feeding. One feels the need 

 of the silo to preserve feed, when the cows are through with 

 their summer soiling rations. This has led many dairjnnen 

 to adopt the silo and grow corn for ensilage to feed in con- 

 nection with hay and grain during this unnatural milk-mak- 

 ing season; while the two or three seasons just passed have 

 hastened the conviction that a summer ensilage is a necessity 

 and I believe, whenever tried, is proving more satisfactory 

 than the soiling system. 



Now, in regard to the summer ensilage system. We used 

 to try to grow corn enough for ensilage to last our cows from 

 one harvesting of this crop until the next, but as the demand 

 for our milk increased we were obliged to keep a larger herd 

 of cows than the capacit}^ of the silos would furnish feed 

 for, and as the area of tillable land suitable for growing corn 

 was limited on our farm we were forced to consider some 

 other way to furnish feed for these milking cows, so we 

 began by hiring pasture from some of our neighbors to help 

 out in this summer feeding in connection with what green 

 crops we could grow. This in turn did not prove satisfac- 

 tory, as after the 1st of July we found that no matter how 

 large the acreage of pasture, the cows would shrink in their 

 milk, and with the torment of flies it was hard sledding to 

 keep up the milk supply. Just about this time the Connect- 

 icut Dairymen's Association began to hold field meetings at 

 some of the dairy farmers' homes, and at one of these meet- 

 ings, held at the home of Thomas Holt of Southington, one 

 of our most progressive dairymen, we learned for the first 

 time of the possibility of preserving oats and clover in the 

 silo. We found him feeding his cows on a splendid, sweet, 

 very palatable ensilage made from oats and clover growing- 

 there. It opened up new vistas of possibilities for us and 

 led VIS to adopt a system that called for growing a smaller 



