THE VALUE OF GREEN FORAGE CROPS. 49 



CHAPTER XL 



THE ADVANTAGES AND VALUE OF GREEN FORAGE CROPS BY EN- 

 SILAGE, OVER THE SAME IN THEIR NATURAL OR GREEN STATE. 



BY IFIROIFIESSOiR, IMl'lBiR/XTDIEJ. 



ENSILAGE gives the farmer the means of readily preserving such 

 crops in the cheapest and easiest manner. No other method can 

 compare with it on the score of economy. Goffart, in an itemized 

 statement, shows that the cost of gathering and "ensilaging" about 

 two hundred and fifty tons of Indian corn does not exceed twenty 

 cents per ton. His laborers, men and women, cost him from twenty 

 cents to thirty-seven and a half cents each by the day. Another 

 French agriculturist, M. de Beauquesnc, puts the cost at twenty 

 cents for the long ton, 2,250 pounds. Both these gentlemen use 

 steam-power. Another, who uses horse-power, estimates the cost at 

 sixty cents for the long ton. Dr. Bailey states that the cost of cutting 

 down the corn, hauling it to the cutter, cutting it up, and packing it 

 in the silo, was not far from seventy-five cents. The same work at 

 the University farm costs sixty-eight and three-fourths cents per ton. 

 We put up about seventeen tons : the labor was charged at seventy- 

 five cents per day for each hand. It should also be observed that the 

 cutting is properly no part of the cost : it should be done whether 

 the corn is green or dry, as a measure of economy, to avoid waste in 

 feeding, and to save the animal as much muscular exertion in the act 

 of eating as possible. It can be done cheaper, once for all, than 

 from day to day, as required by the usual practice of feeding. Third, 

 the value of the food so preserved is beyond all question. It comes 

 out of the silo green and succulent, and as fresh as when first put 

 in, the slight changes which it undergoes being all for the better. 

 After repeated trials, under various conditions, and with different 

 kinds of stock, many French farmers declare that three hundred 

 pounds, not a few that two hundred pounds, of this ensilage, are fully 

 equal to one hundred pounds of the very best hay. Goffart (and 



