140 How THE FARM 



as you know, is to manure very liberally, because that is the surest 

 way to make the farm pay. Bone meal at the rate of 300 to 500 pounds 

 per acre, or hard wood ashes at the rate of 100 bushels to the acre, 

 will all answer very well in lieu of barn manure. In all cases it is of 

 great importance, in top dressing grass lands, whether for pasture or 

 mowing, after the application of seed and manure has been made, to 

 roll thoroughly. A failure to roll will entail a loss of all the labor, 

 by evaporation and drying of seed, if the pasture has been re- 

 seeded. 



ENSILAGE. 



Q. What is your opinion, Mr. Crozier, of the ensilage system ? 



A. I have some hesitation in expressing an opinion of any system 

 that I have not had actual experience with, and I have had nothing 

 to do with ensilage. My success in stock raising, by the methods I 

 have pursued for the last twenty years, has, perhaps, made me a little 

 prejudiced against innovations of this kind; but I can only form an 

 opinion in a general way on the subject. I cannot understand why 

 a green crop, which we know contains from ninety to ninety-five per 

 cent, of water, preserved by the ensilage system, can be equal to the 

 same fodder from which the water has been expelled by drying, and 

 which, when mixed with roots, as we do it, contains all the 

 elements of a complete food. It seems to me that this must 

 certainly be a cheaper and better system than ensilage. I speak 

 with hesitation, however, on this subject, never having had practice 

 with it, and am willing to suspend my final opinion until the 

 system has had a further trial. I know that many have claimed that 

 it has *been a great success with them. On the other hand, I know of 

 several cases where it has been abandoned, and the system of feeding, 

 such as we practice, has been again resorted to. A large and suc- 

 cessful stock raiser, in the vicinity of Toronto, Canada, who had 

 expended $3,000 on silos, which he had constructed in the very best 

 possible manner, after a three years' trial, says that he has abandoned 

 the system, and has fallen back to the old method of feeding with dry 

 fodder and roots during the winter months. Still, in this case, there 

 may have been some bad application of the system, which made its 

 working unsatisfactory, and, as I have before said, until it has had 

 years of comparative trial with other methods, no decided opinion 

 should be expressed; because no one man's or half a dozen men's 

 experience of such an important matter should be final. The whole 

 claim of the ensilage system, as I understand it, is that it is used 

 instead of fresh green feed, and it certainly would be a great advan- 



