CORRESPONDENCE OF JAMES 8. CHAFFEE. 87 



thoroughly, in a silo fifty feet long, twelve feet wide, and sixteen 

 feet in depth. When the ensilage was all in, six inches of uncut 

 wheat straw was placed on the top, the whole being covered with an 

 inch and a quarter spruce plank, of sufficient length to reach across 

 the silo, and fit closely between the walls. These planks were weight- 

 ed with stone, at the rate of a hundred pounds to the square foot. 

 The ensilage was about fourteen feet deep : it settled some three feet. 



When the plank and stone were taken off at one end, two months 

 after they were placed thereon, there was found to be a little at the 

 top unfit for use ; but the remainder of the mass, nearly eleven feet 

 in depth, had fermented somewhat, was brown in color, of a slightly 

 alcoholic odor. On being placed before the cattle, some ate it at 

 once, with an evident relish ; and, in a day or two, every animal of 

 a herd of fifty would eat ensilage in preference to any other forage. 



I think the cost should not exceed two dollars per ton, all expenses 

 told, to grow ensilage, pack it in the silo, and place it before the 

 animal for consumption. I should advise a parallelogram, the 

 length three or four times the width, depth sixteen to twenty feet, 

 corners rounded, or filled in. to make the angles as obtuse as possible, 

 as being the most practical form of silo. 



It should be constructed of masonry ; and, if cobble-stones and 

 gravel are easily obtained, concrete walls will be the cheapest, and as 

 durable as any other. For one month I fed thirty milch cows twice 

 daily upon ensilage, giving them from sixty to seventy pounds each 

 per day, with about ten per cent of that weight additional in oil-meal, 

 wheat, shorts, and hominy-chop. There is nothing I have ever used, 

 unless it may be roots, and plenty of them, that will make a flow of 

 milk equal to ensilage of fodder-corn, for winter feeding. 



I am now feeding ensilage but once per day, as I have not suffi- 

 cient to last until spring without supplementing with hay. 



The ensilage is fed in the morning ; being taken from the silo the 

 previous day, and exposed to the air for fifteen to eighteen hours, 

 with no bad results, and apparently no change as to its chemical 

 properties. It is fed to milch cows, and the same rations grains are 

 used as when feeding hay or other forage. I do not think it will cost 

 more than one-half as much to winter a cow with ensilage as it will 

 with dry fodder, while the milk products will be certainly five per 

 cent greater. 



A neighbor of mine has made the experiment of feeding a portion 

 of his dairy upon ensilaged corn, while another portion were fed 



