52 H. E. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



bright, their skin soft, and they were in good condition. But the 

 point that above all attracted our attention was the sucking calves, 

 which are the most delicate, and always the first to suffer from any 

 deficient or bad food given to their mothers. We did not see a single 

 one that had hair in bad condition, or that was scouring. The 

 fodder that produced this excellent result contained neither salt nor 

 oil-cake, and one would naturally inquire if it would be sufficient in 

 all cases. For very good milkers it would be necessary to add some 

 meal or oil-cake to the rations of maize which we saw distributed, 

 and which weighed about sixty-one pounds per day ; but for the cows 

 in the stable of M. Goffart, weighing alive eight hundred and eighty 

 pounds to eleven hundred pounds, this ration seemed to be sufficient 

 for them and their calves." 



It is contended by no one that ensilage will fatten an animal : it 

 must be enriched by the addition of nitrogenous matters, or the 

 albuminoids, furnished by corn-meal, wheat-bran, ship-stuff, oil-cake, 

 etc. A successful Scotch farmer, Mr. Hunter, settled in Hanover 

 County, Virginia, fed twice daily to each of his twenty head of 

 fattening steers, two quarts of corn-meal, and a bushel basket of 

 ensilage (about twenty-seven pounds). The effects of this ration 

 were exceedingly marked and satisfactory : the animals making rapid 

 and large gains during the continuance of the experiment, which 

 lasted six weeks. It would seem, therefore, that from fifty-five to 

 sixty-five pounds of ensilage (corn) daily to the thousand pounds 

 of live weight will be abundantly sufficient to keep animals in good 

 store condition, and that forty-five to fifty pounds mixed with three 

 or four pounds of corn-meal will rapidly fatten them. Its effects 

 upon the flow of milk have been remarked on by all writers on the 

 subject. The general testimony of dairymen is, that no feeding- 

 stuff will compare with green Indian corn in increasing the yield of 

 milk : it is decidedly superior to roots. 



Hence an abundant supply of such food in greatly improved con- 

 dition, during the winter months, is so great and so obvious as to 

 challenge the attention of every one. In this great department of 

 agriculture, dairying, it indeed promises a revolution. 



Another advantage of no small importance to the farmer is, that 

 by this process he is rendered comparatively independent of the 

 weather. He knows, to his cost, the trouble and worry of hay- 

 making, how that his crop may be seriously damaged, perhaps 

 destroyed, by a single day's rain. In this process, he would almost 



