CORRESPONDENCE OF CAPT. G. NORTON. 57 



course nothing but the ensilage could have made this difference. My 

 wife, who has made butter on this, the old homestead, for forty years, 

 says she never saw cows give such a quantity of milk in winter. Last 

 winter I fed the same quantity of meal with hay, and the cows were 

 all dry before January ; and yet, with all these facts, I have neighbors 

 who will advocate feeding corn in the bundle, without husking, so 

 tenacious are some people of old customs. I told a man to-day, 

 44 Why, you might just as well have told me, when I was master at 

 sea, to heave shingles overboard, to find my way back with, instead 

 of using sextant and chronometer." 



I take the ensilage out of silo any time of day, sometimes feed 

 immediately after taking out. I don't see any difference in its effects, 

 and cattle like it equally well either way. 



One part of silo, when I had a heavy weight of stone, three- 

 fourths ton to square yard, it was very little acid ; and even what I 

 am now feeding has a pleasant smell and taste. I think ensilage is 

 worth as much, ton for ton, as hay fed with grain as I am now feed- 

 ing, better than either alone. I intend to put into our silo this spring, 

 or by the first of June, green rye, oats, and grass enough to fill it 

 for summer and fall feeding, and plant corn after. I shall then have 

 my first crop to put into the other silo in August, and also plant our 

 small corn after haying, to help fill in. I intend to build the other 

 silo, giving me three, and keep cows up nights, feeding twice in 

 summer. I am satisfied that other crops, with grass mixed with the 

 ensilage, will supply its deficiencies and stop the everlasting going 

 to mill ; from my experience this winter, I think forty pounds of 

 mixed ensilage (I mean put into silo green) per day, for average- 

 sized cows, will keep them fat the year round. I know I have some 

 small cows that do not need that quantity of ensilage alone, and they 

 are the best milkers in the stable. The cattle all like it better than the 

 best of June-cut hay : this I have proved many times, by seeing hay 

 left, but ensilage never. I will repeat that our cattle look better than 

 ever before, when fed on hay and grain ; and such experienced farmers 

 as Talcot and Whitney of Williston, and Taylor in charge of Col. 

 Cannon's stock farm of Burlington, said they had not seen any stock 

 looking better, and few as well, this winter. I give the credit entirely 

 to ensilage, for I had no more meal than usual. I learned long since 

 that we cannot expect something from nothing, and, by reading as well 

 as observation, that the farmers who are in the advance are those 

 who feed stock well. In conclusion, I would only say to farmers, 



