112 



er in the county who had built a silo, a postal card bearing the 

 -following questions : — 



1. Capacity of your silo ? 



2. When built ? 



3. Amount of ensilage stored ? 



4. Kind of seed used ? 



5. Which do you like best ? 



6. When do you begin to feed it ? 



7. Do you make milk or butter ? 



8. Does your stock gain or lose ? 



9. Entire cost of producing it ? 



10. Do you consider it a profitable crop ? 



In addition to the above, we have corresponded with more 

 than fifty different farmers outside of our county, that ha'^'e 

 built from one to fourteen silos each, having stored the ensilage 

 and fed it to all kinds of farm stock, and in no instance have 

 we received a report of a partial failure. 



And without going into the details of the replies received 

 from the several owners of silos, we will give the general re- 

 sults deduced from them as they appear to your committee. 



1st. That this method of preserving green fodder for win- 

 ter use is a success, when the necessary conditions are secured. 



2d. That ensilage is a nutritrious and profitable feed for 

 all kinds of farm stock, but especially adapted to milch cows. 



3d. That the flavor of the milk and butter is not much dif- 

 ferent from that made with summer green feed, but is more 

 uniform. 



4th. That there is invariably an increase of flesh and flow 

 of milk, when the same amount of grain is fed with it as with 

 English hay. 



5th. That the quality of beef is very much improved by its 

 use in connection with other nutritious food. 



6th. That in order to reach the best results, ensilage should 

 be fed with some other nutritious fodder, even for cows. 



7th. That all kinds of grass or grains may be stored with 



