OBJECTIONS TO ENSILAGE. 143 



feeding seems to furnish just the necessary quantity of succulent food 

 required for health and a large yield. Too much watery food, which 

 is the kind the silo must necessarily supply, is not the natural 

 food for cattle in cold weather. That the stalks are all eaten, 

 when taken from a silo, is no more true than when cured 

 and cut up. I have doubted the economy, after repeated trials, of 

 cutting stalks at all for cattle, as so little is left by them uneaten. It 

 certainly will not pay to go through with all the silo processes in 

 order to get the butts of cornstalks eaten up. There is no particular 

 value in bulk, so long as bulk does not add strength to the food, and 

 when it is considered that bulk makes a great deal heavier and more 

 laborious handling, I fail to appreciate how two tons of bulk in a silo 

 can be any better than one ton in which the nutritive elements are 

 condensed. In other words, I cannot see how the presence of a ton 

 of water should enhance the value of cornstalks. In warm weather 

 this juice takes the place of water for drink, but in winter so much is 

 not required and must be hurtful. I must endorse Mr. Crozier in his 

 distrust of the practical value of silos, and commend his outspoken 

 convictions, although he seems to be pitted almost alone against them. 

 Cornstalks are good food for cows, but so succulent in their nature 

 that when dry they should be fed with something more substantial, or 

 the animal will rapidly run down. Silo fodder is still more washy, 

 unless the fermentation furnishes a stimulant which is at the same time 

 victuals and drink. May be this is one of the scientific principles 

 which silos upset, proving that fermented juice is not a stimulant, but 

 food, and food proper for transformation into milk and butter. Verily 

 these are days of progress, when alcohol becomes food, and tallow 

 (Oleomargarine) is butter. F. D. CUBTIS. 



"Kirby Homestead, N. Y" 



(Mr. H.) I notice, Mr. Crozier, on a careful reading of the report 

 of the Ensilage Congress, held in New York last year, that nearly all 

 the members present were enthusiastic advocates of the system, and 

 according to the statements there made, there is but little doubt that 

 it has proved of value to many. Still I would have been pleased to 

 have seen it compared with the feeding by root crops pulped, as you 

 term it, after your method, because that seems to me the turning 

 point of the whole controversy, as it is certainly unfair to make a 

 comparison against dry food, such as meal, bran, etc. , when mixed 

 with cut corn fodder, instead of comparing it with the corn fodder or 

 hay mixed with an equal weight of pulped or crushed roots. In this 

 connection I will quote from a communication published in the 

 Country Gentleman for April, 1881 : 



