390 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



producing milk and flesh $7.26, making 2| tons equal in 

 value to one ton of hay. 



It requires a good Ave or six horse power steam-engine to 

 run a 20-inch cutter effectively. With such power a large 

 horseload of corn was cut 1^^ inches long in five minutes 

 repeatedly last season, but nine minutes was the usual time 

 occupied. A two-horse tread-mill will do good work with 

 such a cutter. John G. Walcott of Peabody filled silos in 

 Essex County last season with a portable six-horse engine 

 and 20-inch cutter for seventy-five cents per ton, the corn 

 being delivered to the cutter from the field. This is a prac- 

 tical way of avoiding the objection of each farmer going to 

 the expense of running the necessary machinery. At a con- 

 vention of farmers and others interested in ensilage from 

 diflferent parts of the country held at New York in January 

 of 1882, after full discussion, the following resolution was 

 adopted : — 



Resolved, That it has become a well-established fact, after six years' 

 successful use in this country, and by the concurrent testimony of many 

 intelligent farmers, that the ensilage system is of great advantage to 

 the farming interest, as well as to all mankind. 



One year later, after another year's experience, a similar 

 convention was held at the same place for the same purpose. 

 The following resolution was adopted : — 



Resolved, That the Ensilage Congress, assembled in New Yoi'k Jan. 

 25, 1883, desire to express to M. Auguste Goffiirt of France their appre- 

 ciation of the great value of the system of ensilage discovered and 

 introduced by him. They recommend to the farmers of the United 

 States its universal adoption as the cheapest and best method of pre- 

 serving fodder crops. 



In order to show the cost of growing ensilage corn and 

 putting it into the silo, and what may be considered a good 

 method of conducting the system, and also what may be 

 expected as the results from good land under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, I will give in detail my account with a three- 

 acre lot that had been in pasture for ten years, the planting 

 of which was finished June 28th, 1882. 



