84 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PASTURE AND 



WASTE LANDS. 



There was but one experiment offered, and that was 

 made by Clement R. Hanson of Salem. It is the opinion 

 of the committee that the experimenter has well earned 

 the first premium of -f 15, offered liy our Society, by the 

 work he has done and the full and interesting statement he 

 has made in regard to it. 



It is also the opinion of the committee that this experi- 

 ment is one of the most valuable we have any knowledge 

 of, for this is probably the first time in the history of pro- 

 gressive agriculture, that "corn for the silo" has been used 

 as a financial lever with which to lift and remove stones, 

 stumps and bush roots from rough pasture land. 



There are in our county, thousands of acres growing but 

 little of either grass or wood, which can be put in good 

 tillable condition with no more labor than Mr. Hanson put 

 into his experiment. If these waste acres can be made to 

 grow ensilage corn enough while being improved, to pay for 

 the labor and the manure needed to make the improvement, 

 the tillable area of Essex County will soon be very much 

 extended, because that will be the most profitable work the 

 owners of waste lands can do. 



In connection with this experiment, Mr. Hanson has 

 established to his own satisfaction the food value of en- 

 silage as compared with that of good English hay, and his 

 valuation of if'O per ton in the field is based upon good 

 hay at $20 per ton in the barn. He thinks one ton of hay 

 fed with three tons of ensilage will give better results than 

 two tons of hay or six tons of ensilage fed separate, there- 

 fore by leaving his grass land to produce what hay it 

 would, and going to his waste land to grow his corn, he 

 has plenty of hay with which to increase the value of his 

 corn, and he has plenty of corn with which to increase the 

 value of his hay, thereby getting the best results from 

 each, he can fairly place a high value upon each. 



