■1881.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



35 



we failed to mention that excellent quarto en- 

 titled Bairy Fwminy—hcmg the theory, 

 practice and methods of dairying— edited by 

 J P. Sheldon, and published by Cassel, 

 Potter, Galpin & Co., London, Paris and 

 New York, as omii\ying the head of tlie very 

 front nink in llic ilairy literature of the world. 

 Ostt^iisibly niHvsciit'ing the dairy interests 

 and till" daiiv lore of two continents, its field 

 is in reality the civilized world, wherever the 

 Englisli language is capable of being inter- 

 preted and understood. Ko. 19 of tins beau- 

 tiful journal is now before us, and from an 

 elaborate chapter on American Dairy Pro- 

 ducts we (juoie a few statistics relating to the 

 butler and clieese of our country, and espe- 

 cially the quantity and value of these jno- 

 ducts which we export to other countries. 

 Much stress is laid upon our tobacco and our 

 alcoholic productions when our moral status 

 is discussed, but these pale before the pro- 

 duction of our dairies. Taking the whole 

 country through, the amounts here given are 

 probably far below the reality, bfi-ausr thou- 

 sands of farmers keep no account wIuiIcVit of 

 their milk and butter producticm, and many 

 of them are unable to make even an approxi- 

 mation to the aggregate amouut. 



As near as possible from the available data 

 — based upon the census returns of 1880— we 

 have in the United States 12,000,000 of dairy 

 cows, and during the year above given these 

 produced 800,000.000 pounds of butter, 350,- 

 000,000 pounds of cheese, and 2,000.000,000 

 gallons of milk were sold and used, valued at 

 $408,000,000. Add to this for the Dominion 

 of Canada 1,600,000 cows, 100,000,000 pounds 

 of butter, 7.5,000,000 pounds of cheese, 200,- 

 000.000 gallons of milk sold and used, amount- 

 ing to 8'">0,000,ti0(i, and we have an aggregate 

 for the United States and Canada of 13,600,- 

 000 cows, 900,000,000 pounds of butter, 425,- 

 000,000 pounds of cheese, 2,200,000,000 gal- 

 lons of milk, amounting to 8458,000,000. 



Our exports of butter and cheese are given 

 decenially from 1790 to 1880, but omitting the 

 intermediate years, we will merely give the 

 two years named, by way of contrast. In 

 1790 we exported 470,440 pounds of butter, 

 and 144,734 pounds of cheese, whilst in 1880 

 the quantity exported was 39,236,658 pounds 

 of butter, and 127,553,007 pounds of cheese ; 

 an increase of 38,766,218 pounds of bntter, 

 and 127,409,173 pounds of cheese. In 1879 

 we exported 14,100,567 pounds of cheese more 

 than we did in 1880, and 988,632 pounds less 

 of butter. 



These figures illustrate not only the num- 

 ber of our dairy stock, the magnitude and 

 money value of our dairy production, but also 

 ihe necessity and the quality of the literary 

 channels through which this information is 

 collected and diflused ; as well as the modus 

 operandi by which such results are accom- 

 plished, pre-eminently amongst which, is the 

 journal from whose columns we have been 

 "quoting. So far as the matter relates to the 

 quantity, the quality and the pecuniary value 

 of our exportations or importations, whatever 

 the commodity may be, there is perhaps no 

 difficulty in arriving at accuj-ate conclusions, 

 if the original records have been accurately 

 made. But it is not so easy to obtain re- 

 liable information upon the exact amount and 

 value of home production and consumption of 

 any object of human industry. Perhaps two- 

 thirds of civilized society care vei-y little 

 about the amount they produce or consume, 

 80 that ends meet, or exhibit a reasonable 

 plus. Indeed a large proportion of the world 

 don't want to know whether their living 

 " costs more than it comes to " or not, and 

 this is not confined to the profligate and the 

 indolent only. 



This indifference being in the way, there 

 will always be a difficulty in collecting ac- 

 curate statistics, especially in the products of 

 the dairy. How many cows are in the pos- 

 of private families, who perhaps never 

 of a cent's worth of butter, milk, 

 I or cream, but consume it all within 

 their own families ? and yet, all this must be 

 recognized iu aggregating the dairy pro- 



ductions of the country. Those can, there- 

 fore, only be estimated, until more detailed 

 light is dift'used. 



ENSILAGE. 



This is comparatively a new term in con- 

 nection with the subject of agriculture, and 

 yet it is becoming popularly familiar; but 

 new as it is, in principle, it has been known 

 and practiced these very many years ; for in 

 point of /acf it embraces the same chemical 

 princijiles that are operative in preserving 

 green fruit ; namely, the expulsion of atmo.s- 

 pheric air. As much as five and fifty years 

 ago— during our apprentice days— a neighbor- 

 ing housewife was somewhat remarkable for 

 he"- good green currant pies prepared during 

 the long winter seasons. On one occasion 

 we were present when she opened one of her 

 miniature " silos" and deposited the plump 

 currants into a dish, previous to the manu- 

 facture of her pies. There they were, crisp 

 and juicy, albeit a little paler than they were 

 wheii taken from the bush in the i)revious 

 early summer. The modus operandi was 

 simply this and nothing more: The currants 

 were gathered and picked from the main 

 stems ju.st before they began to change in 

 color, and were spread out to allow whatever 

 moisture may have enveloped them, to 

 evaporate. They were then put into large 

 glass bottles with narrow necks, also 

 thoroughly dried out. When quite full, and 

 thorouglily shaken together, the bottles were 

 tightly corked — perhaps hermetically sealed — 

 and set away in a cool place, and kept for 

 winter uses. Thus, every bottle was a mina- 

 ture silo, and the process, practically, modern 

 ensilage. 



The canning of green corn, peas, beans, 

 cabbages, etc., are approximations to ensilage 

 in its application to green fodder, and the 

 success or failure in the one involves the same 

 chemical principles as the success or failure 

 in the other, namely the perfect or the imper- 

 fect expulsion of atmospheric air. How many 

 cans of green corn, beans, peas and tomatoes 

 were utterly spoiled— sometimes causing ter- 

 rific explosions of the cans— before success 

 was attained ? atid yet no body thought it 

 necessary to come out over their signatures in 

 condemnation of canned vegetables. There 

 is no guess-work about ensilage— no zodiacal 

 signs to be consulted, and no moon's phases to 

 be' exorcised, in order to attain success. 



Indeed, every kraut-stand is a silo, and the 

 preparation of sauer-kraut is a near approxi- 

 luation to ensilage. It is not the small moiety 

 of salt that is used that preserves the kraut ; 

 it is the thorough packing it down and the 

 exclusion of air, and the heavy weights on the 

 top are to keep it packed, the brine that rises 

 on the top being equivalent to sealing. Any 

 ])art of the kraut which is above the brine 

 always spoils, and as the brine sinks, through 

 leakage or otherwise, the kraut becomes ex- 

 posed to the air and spoils. 



In the preparation of green fodder by en- 

 silage, the same precautionsmust be observed, 

 as in the preparation of sauer-kraut and green 

 fruit and vegetables— namely the thorough 

 exclusion of air. Why have we better and 

 more butter during the summer than during 

 the winter ? Simply because the butter-pro- 

 ducing animals have access to green fodder 

 during the summer, which they generally 

 have not during the winter, and it is to prac- 

 tically can the fodder and keep it green, that 

 ensilage is resorted to ; but the process must 

 be as perfect, as possible— the nearer per- 

 fection the better— or the cattle that eat it 

 may be injured as much as. people are who 

 eat spoiled fruit and vegetables. We had a 

 conversation with an intelligent and enter- 

 prising dairyman a few days ago, who visited 

 thesiios of New York and "Massachusetts, 

 and he is fully satisfied with the utility and 

 practicability of ensilage. Where one man 

 used it two years ago, one hundred used it 

 last year, and one thousand will use it this 

 year, and wherever it has failed, it has been 

 through the slovenly or careless maimer in 

 which the process was executed. Men must 



read, think, and observe the chemico-pneu- 

 niatic laws, through which perfect ensilage 

 only ciui'be practically' accomplished. 



A silo does not mean imnlv dig-ing a hole 

 in the ground, throwing tin- fodder loosely in- 

 to it, and covering it with a few loose boards. 

 It means an airtight pit, or airtight box, sunk 

 into the ground — either round or square — 

 Willi an airtight covering ; but no matter 

 about the form, so that it is airtight. When 

 we say airtight, we do not mean absolutely so, 

 because, pneumatically considered, a perfect 

 vacuum is hardly practicable, but it should be 

 as nearly airtight as it can possibly be made, 

 and the nearer so the better. 



But the establishment of the fact that en- 

 silage is practicable, and that its principles 

 are correct when rigidly adhered to, by no 

 means justifies a blind or hap-hazard adoption 

 of it by every person who may possess " a cow 

 and a pig or two," without regard to compen- 

 sation, and the cost of the silo. There would 

 be little economy iu building a sUo that would 

 cost the farmer or the dairyman more than the 

 additional profit he would realize over feeding 

 the ordinary dvy food. It is comparatively a 

 new thing in this country and needs to be 

 adopted cautiously, feeling their way care- 

 fully as they proceed. The question is not so 

 much ' Can it be done V' as ' Will it pay after 

 it is done ?' And that this question needs to 

 be duly considered— and thoroughly too— we 

 quote from oiu- cotemporaries, the first of 

 whom we recognize as the editor of the 

 OermanUJwn Tehyraph, whose age and long 

 experience in handling professedly progressive 

 ideas, entitles bis opinion to the favorable re- 

 gard of his fellow-citizens. It is always best 

 to "be sure you are right " before you at- 

 tempt to " go ahead." Ensilage is either a 

 bad thing as a profitable investment or it is a 

 good.thing. If it is a bad thing, it will of itself 

 come* to naught- perhai)S after the farmer-has 

 squandered his means unavailably upon it ; 

 but if it is a (jood thing, the gates of prejudice 

 cannot prevail agaiust it. Under any circum- 

 stances it will not injure the intelligent and 

 progressive farmer to view all its points be- 

 fore adopting it. 



The Silo. 

 No matter how absurd any new tiling introduced 

 into agriculture or horticulture may he, there are 

 not only ardent advocates of it, but these advocates 

 are not willing to allow anybody to differ from them 

 without condemning their want of judgment, or in 

 expressing opinions without having opportunities to 

 form them. Yet these very persons, without any 

 more experience have gone Into the construction of 

 pits and filling them with green corn cut into short 

 hitp, which, coming out green and fresh, iu the 

 wiuter-tiiue, and the cattle eating it freely, they 

 shout at once to come and see and then judge 1 Now, 

 no one ever doubted that the green corn could not 

 be preserved in this way, or that the cattle would 

 not eat it readily ; but we did and do doubt that 

 there is any saving as is s.i vehemently claimed, in 

 the inethod. Again, we did not condemn it at all, 

 only advising our agricultural friends that if they 

 regarded the thing favorably, to try it at flret on a 

 moderate scale, so that in case of not being satisfied 

 they could abandon it wiih little loss. One maniac 

 says, just come to my place about four o'clock in the 

 afternoon, when I feed my cattle, and see how they 

 consume the fodder, and the milk the give. This Is 

 no doulit all very nice ; we have not a word to say 

 against it ; but that does not meet the question. The 

 cautious farmer wants to know what it co»t» in com- 

 parison to the present methods of feeding. The silos 

 are expensive ; the cartage of the green corn is very 

 heavy; the cutting of the stalks into one or two inch 

 pieces is very laborious ; then it has to be packed 

 lightly down in the pits so as to exclude the atmos- 

 phere ; then there is no small time occupied in re- 

 moving it from the pits and covering up again ; and 

 then there is interest to pay on the cost of the silos. 

 This is what farmers want to know exactly about. 

 If it can be shown that the new way of feeding is 

 better and cheaper than the old— and this has not 

 yet been shown— it will be taken hold of and intro- 

 duced fast enough. The silos and ensilage origina- 

 ted in France, if we are correctly informed, but it is 

 not generally in use there, neither is it in England, 

 where, of all countries, and for reasons unnecessary 

 to state, it ought to be universally adopted. 



We call attention of our viticulturists to the 

 paper of Prof. Tustiu, of Lewisburg, Pa., on 

 page 38 of this number of the Parmer, and hope 

 the question may be better tlie comiug season . 



