6 



The contrast between the period in agriculture immediately following the organ- 

 ization of ibis society and the- present period are even more marked than that 

 between the first named period and the agricultural standstill before your organiza- 

 tion. To »-ain a glimpse of farm operations in 1820 one has but to read the 

 report of the committee appointed to view crops in the fields of that year. The 

 changes in the method of farming, in the machinery used, in the ideas substituted, 

 are simply marvelous. What would the fathers have thought of the method of pre- 

 paring food for stock as it is now practiced by some of our best farmers. Mr. 

 Henry Noble, a practical farmer near by, has kindly given me a few facts and 

 figures in relation to silos, of which he has three. The cost of the silo varies from 

 $50 to $500. Twenty-five tons of ensilage can be obtained from one acre of land 

 in condition to raise a crop of field corn ; as high as forty tons have been raised. 

 This can be raised, cut and put into the silo for $2.50 per ton. Sixty pounds of 

 ensilage is sufficient food for one cow per day. 



Sixty pounds of ensilage will cost seven and one-half cents. Twenty pounds of 

 crood hay at -fio per ton will cost twelve and one-half cents. 



Twenty pounds of hay is sufficient food for one cow. for one day, while sixty 

 pounds of ensilage is equal to twenty-live pounds of good hay. Good ensilage 

 weighs thirty pounds per bushel. One bushel each day with ten pounds of hay is 

 the most advisable way of feeding, thus lessening the cost of feeding and improving 

 the condition of the animal and the quality and quantity of milk. 



A farm that will keep ten cows without the silo, will, with'the silo and five 

 acres of ensilage corn, keep twenty cows. Ami as every farmer knows, the more 

 stock kept the richer the farm will grow, and it the farm is enriched the more hay 

 will grow upon it, and of course the more hay produced the more stock can be 

 kept. What would Elkanah Watson say to the economy and thrift developed in 

 the silo ? 



Many who knew something of farming even forty years ago, but whose atten- 

 tion has been given to other pursuits since, would be at a loss on the modern farm. 

 Many elements have entered into this great change. Practical farmers have met 

 and discussed methods worked out in their own experience, and others have reaped 

 the benefit of their skill. Foreign methods have been studied and experimented 

 upon in our soil and climate. Agricultural theorists and students have arisen and 

 comparisons and experiments have been made without number, and the practical 

 farmers, while discarding much have accepted many ideas. Then, too, capital has 

 been placed in farms and experiments tried which, while they have not always re- 

 munerated the owners, have yet served useful purposes, and others have seen the 

 results of these experiments without running the risk of loss themselves. 



"Fancy farms" in Berkshire, after all, have helped us. They have aided in 

 keeping up the interest in the calling ; have improved much waste land, drained 

 swamps, made green sward of rocky pastures, improved the stock, tested new 

 machinery, made experiments in all methods of dairy farming, made the neighbor- 

 hood more valuable by the erection of tasteful buildings,]) added to the beauty of 

 the landscape, enriched the fields, experimented in the'rotation of crops, the pro- 

 ductiveness of fertilizers, improved your breed vif horses and cattle, and bid fair 



