100 H. K. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



My experience in growing corn-fodder is, that it is much better 

 sown in drills, three or three and a half feet apart. It then can be 

 cultivated, which will add at least one- third to its growth. 



As the broad leaves of the growing corn receive from the air and 

 sun a large per cent of its feeding value, it is therefore very essen- 

 tial that the stalks should have plenty of room for the full develop- 

 ment of its leaves ; for in them is contained the principal virtue of the 

 plant as a food. Therefore, in determining what kind of corn is best 

 to grow for fodder, the most leafy variety should be selected. I find 

 the Western Dent to be better in this respect, than our common field- 

 corn. 



Last season we sowed at the rate of two, two and a half, and three 

 bushels of corn per acre. I am convinced that two are sufficient. 

 We put it in with our common field-grain drill, letting the tubes of 

 tooth No. 1 and 3 discharge into No. 2, closing No. 4, letting 5 and 

 7 into No. 6, closing 8, uniting 9 and 11 into No. 10. 



In a nine-tooth drill begin by closing No. 1, and proceed as above 

 described. The eleven-tooth drill puts in 3, the nine-tooth drill 2, 

 rows at a time, the wheel-tracks serving as a guide on return bouts. 



Began harvesting the fodder, one man managed the reaper, two to 

 bind, assisted occasionally by the one who reaped. Two men, each 

 with a one-horse lumber- wagon, drew the fodder to the silo, one load- 

 ing in the field while the other was unloading at the cutter, a " Silver 

 and Deming," manufactured at Salem, O., with a twelve-foot carrier 

 attached, to convey the fodder into the silo. 



After cutting it three-eighths of an inch long, which it did as fast 

 as two men could feed it, it was run by an eight-horse-power thresh- 

 ing-engine, thirty to forty pounds of steam being sufficient to run it, 

 four knives making five hundred and fifty to six hundred revolutions 

 per minute. A man was employed in the building, to spread and 

 tread down the fodder. Besides the engineer, eight men were four 

 days doing the work, putting in five and a half acres at the rate of 

 forty tons per day. We supposed that five acres would be enough 

 to fill the silo ; but, with the addition of a half-acre, it was then but 

 half-filled. 



When through cutting, we covered the fodder with a foot and a 

 half of uncut straw, on which we placed a covering of rough two- 

 inch hemlock plank : on them was piled stone a foot or more in depth. 

 The silo was opened Nov. 12 ; and the fodder was found in a good 

 condition, except up and down the door-jamb some ten or twelve 



