74 tf. n. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



would be ready for the winter rye, clover, June grass, etc. (Hunga- 

 rian can't be grown early) ; which could be harvested early in June, 

 cut up same as corn-fodder, and stored in the silos for summer feed- 

 ing. Our ideas are, that it is best to give the stock a good feed from 

 the silos every morning and night during the summer, in addition to 

 pasturage. Now, as to whether people can afford to put in silos, 

 etc., we can only say that on our upland farm we had, at the begin- 

 ning of winter, two hundred tons of hay. If we had put in fifteen oi 

 twenty acres of corn, and cut and stored it in the silos, we would 

 now have been able to have spared all of the two hundred tons of 

 hay; and, as the price is now extreme (twenty dollars per ton), we 

 would have received for it enough to have paid all expenses of build- 

 ing both barn and silo, besides raising and harvesting the corn-fodder, 

 and we should have had fully as much manure to put back on the 

 farm as we will have now by feeding the hay. The stock would be 

 kept as well upon the ensilage as upon hay, and yield as much 

 manure ; and the hay that could be sold at eight to ten dollars per 

 ton would pay all expenses the first year. The right kind of corn for 

 seed costs eighty-five cents to one dollar per bushel ; and we hope to 

 get a feed-cutter capable of cutting ten to twelve tons per hour, or 

 a hundred tons per day, for about a hundred and fifty dollars, and 

 not require over a two-horse tread-power to run it. Corn-ensilage is 

 probably not a perfect food for cows in milk. Linseed meal, or 

 cotton-seed meal, with bran or oatmeal, will produce a good flow of 

 milk. Fifty-five or sixty pounds of ensilage-food, with three pounds 

 of linseed-meal and four pounds of bran, will answer satisfactorily. 

 We submit all this for what it is worth. Every one had better inves- 

 tigate thoroughly for himself. 



Yours most truly, 



WHITMAN & BURRELL. 



It seems that Whitman & Burrell planted seven acres, on which 

 they raised two hundred and twelve tons, allowing the cost to be two 

 dollars per ton : they say, if they had planted fifteen acres of corn, 

 and put it into silo for ensilage, they would have been able to have 

 spared and sold the two hundred tons of hay. Allowing these fifteen 

 acres to produce four hundred and twenty- four tons green corn- 

 fodder, costing two dollars per ton, eight hundred and forty-eight 

 dollars, and allowing they sold the two hundred tons of hay at twenty 

 dollars per ton, which would be four thousand dollars, deducting the 



