CORRESPONDENCE OF B. AUSTIN AVERT. 41 



than mine. Hence, I say, that ensilage properly preserved is a health- 

 ful food, and very digestible ; and every farmer knows that eows cannot 

 maintain a full and healthy flow of milk, good forms and general con- 

 dition, sleek coats, soft skins, and bright eyes, unless the food given 

 assimilates, which is necessary to produce the above qualities. 



I do not keep any sheep on my farm, and therefore cannot state 

 the cost of keeping same. 



I have never practised soiling cattle. 



I know of no reason why cattle would not do well fed on ensilage 

 the year round, with a slight run at pasture occasionally for a 

 change ; although my experience, so far, is limited by my present 

 feeding of ensilage this winter. 



I have farmed it now for over thirty years on my present farm ; 

 and, for over twenty years, I have never sold a ton of hay off the 

 farm, having always deemed it necessary to feed the same on the 

 farm to keep up the average flow of milk during the winter, and, in 

 addition, feed for six months of the year grain costing me never 

 less than a hundred dollars per month, and often as high as a hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars per month with this hay. This year I have 

 already drawn to market fifty tons of hay, which I have sold from 

 twelve to eighteen dollars per ton, according to quality and change in 

 market, and intend to sell fifty tons more before spring, or as soon as 

 I can market it ; and have, since the first day of November, fed the 

 ensilage without a pound of grain of any kind ; and my stock to-day 

 are certainly in as good, if not better, condition, as any winter in 

 twenty years, when I fed the grain and hay combined ; and the flow 

 of milk is fully up to the standard of any period under the old system 

 of feeding. 



Now, in closing this letter, let me state what I consider justly due 

 to my friend, the Hon. Daniel Bookstaver, ex-mayor of Syracuse, 

 who first gave me encouragement to build a silo, and kindly gave me 

 the benefit of his extended reading, and a goodly portion of his time 

 in supervising the construction and filling of the silo ; and who was 

 the only man in the whole county of Onondaga who insisted upon it 

 that it would be a success ; and whose faith never wavered a particle, 

 when it seemed as if not only my neighbors, but all who came to see it, 

 would go away to publicly pity me that I was making such a fool of 

 myself. But Mr. Bookstaver always calmly replied to these wise 

 men, " Wait and see : they laugh longest who laugh last ; " "It has 

 succeeded in France, it will succeed here;" and bolstered me up 



