86 H. R. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



CHAPTER XXL 



CORRESPONDENCE FROM 



CT^:M::ES s. 



WASSAIC, N. Y., FEB. 7, 1881 



MR. H. R. STEVENS, Boston, Mass. 



Dear Sir : 



Yours of the 31st ult. at hand. In reply, I will endeavor to 

 partially answer your questions, thus stating what little I know about 

 ensilage, and thus fulfil the requests made by you. 



I consider the variety of Southern corn known as "White Nor- 

 folk" to be best suited for ensilage. "Blunt's Prolific" may be 

 better, but I have had no experience with it. The corn should be 

 a large-stalk-producing variety ; as large stalks, beside giving a larger 

 yield per acre, are much better suited for ensilage than smaller ones. 



Plant in drills, with sufficient width between the rows to permit of 

 horse cultivation, and use not to exceed one bushel of seed per acre. 



Upon a piece of five acres that I raised last season, I compute the 

 whole cost per acre of planting and cultivation, exclusive of fer- 

 tilizers, to be about seven dollars and thirty cents ; and, as the 

 average product was thirty tons, it makes the cost of labor per ton 

 less than twenty-five cents. 



I have not as yet raised any grains or grasses for ensilage, other 

 than corn. 



I have used for cutting ensilage the Telegraph fodder-cutter, 

 manufactured by Willson Brothers & Co., of Harrisburg, Penn. I 

 like this machine very much : it does its work thoroughly and easily, 

 although its capacity (about five tons per hour) may be too limited 

 for some. 



The ensilage should be cut a half -inch in length, or less. I cut, 

 last season, about five-eighths of an inch in length, at the rate of 

 twenty-five to thirty tons per day ; packed and tramped it down 



