42 H. R. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



ANS. I opened the silo Dec. 4 ; found the hay that we placed on 

 top mouldy ; the rowen was a brownish color and very fragrant, 

 smelling quite like new-mown hay, but not just like it, more like the 

 smell of honeycomb. 



The cattle all ate it greedily the first time it was given them, not 

 one of the twenty-four refusing it. 



We got to the corn ensilage Dec. 24 ; found it had changed to a 

 light brown color, and had an agreeable smell, in which I could detect 

 a slight flavor or smell of alcohol. 



QUES. Please give me your experience in feeding to stock, and 

 kind of stock. 



ANS. Previous to the opening of the silo, I had fed my milch 

 cows two fodderings dry hay, one of the rowen, and one of dry corn- 

 fodder, per day, with one quart corn-meal and three quarts shorts per 

 cow. I then omitted the dry rowen and corn-fodder, and gave two 

 fodderings rowen ensilage ; and in three days the cows increased one- 

 eighth in their flow of milk. 



For experiment, I kept an accurate weight of the milk from one 

 cow. For the week before opening the silo, she gave an average of 

 nineteen pounds and three-fourths per day ; for the week after open- 

 ing the silo, an average of twenty-one pounds and a half per day. 



I then gave her rowen ensilage without any dry fodder, except the 

 meal and shorts, the same as she had during the season ; and she 

 gave an average of twenty-four pounds and a half per day, for the 

 week, showing a gain of four pounds and three-fourth per day, in 

 favor of ensilage. The cows ate during the week four hundred and 

 forty pounds, an average of sixty-three pounds per day. 



Jan. 1 we put the cow that I previously experimented with on 

 corn ensilage, without any dry fodder except the meal and shorts. 

 She gave, for seven days, an average of twenty-five pounds per day : 

 she ate, during the week, an average of seventy pounds per day ensi- 

 lage. Corn ensilage weighs forty-eight pounds per cubic foot. 

 Rowen ensilage weighs thirty pounds per cubic foot. 



QUES. What quantity, and how often, do you feed ensilage? 



ANS. My supply of ensilage being small, I am unable to feed, 

 at the present time, as much as I should like ; but from careful ex- 

 periment I find my cows give the most milk, and appear the best 

 satisfied, when fed the following rations : at six o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, directly after milking, I give each cow thirty pounds corn 

 ensilage, with one quart cotton-seed meal ; at eight o'clock, four 



