62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



soiliiio- c'ro]>s, and how iiincli more would it lake to get that 

 into the silo than to the cows ^ Again, why is Mr. Daniels 

 afraid to plant corn on the same gronnd year after year ? I 

 have planted corn on the same field four years in succession, 

 and every year it has been better than it was the preceding 

 yefir. My neighbor, Mr. Jewett, has a field of corn which 

 he has planted some six or seven years, and it has grown 

 better every succeeding 3'ear, with a record yield last year 

 in spite of the drought. 



]\Ir. Daniels. I am very glad this question is l)rought up. 

 It has been four or five years since we ceased soiling our 

 cows from the field, but I can remember distinctly the 

 amonnt of labor required to cut with the mowing machine 

 a crop of oats and peas, a crop of vetch, a crop of barley, 

 some wheat and some rve. Besides, vou are carting a tre- 

 mendous load of water into the stable. In the summer silo 

 system you can use a hay-loader, which saves much work; 

 yet it is not policy to have this machine in the field all the 

 time for loading green fodder. With 7 men working we 

 can ])ut in 60 tons of silage in three days, and that (50 tons 

 will feed 20 cows five months. Three days with 7 men is 

 only twenty-one days with 1 man. If we were to go after 

 green stnff four days in the week for five months, it would 

 figure U}) to more than tw^enty-one days, and it usually takes 

 an extra man. Silage is in a condensed form ; it is easier to 

 feed, and gives a uniform production of milk. I have 

 records at home that will not show a variation of 10 quarts 

 a day with 50 cows milking. We couldn't do that with all 

 kinds of feed in the summer. The matter of plowing and 

 harrowing and planting, too, must run up a tremendous 

 amonnt of labor compared with the use of the wheel harrow. 



AVe planted one field of corn sixteen years continuously, 

 and the sixteenth year the corn crop was worse than any 

 preceding year. There wasn't humus enough put back into 

 that soil ; it wasn't mellow ; it wouldn't absorb water. I 

 admit that you can for three or four years raise corn after 

 com continuously, but believe me that any one who prac- 

 tices that method for at least ten or fifteen years will meet 

 the same conditions that we met. 



