90 THE IDAIRYMAX^S MAlfUAL. 



At the beginning of 1880 this process was much dis- 

 cussed by tlie agricultural press (following the lead of 

 the Americaii Agriculturist), and the result was the 

 building of some fifty or more silos in different parts 

 of the country, most of them substantial, and many of 

 them in the most durable form. This was most remark- 

 able progress for a new system to make in a single season. 

 Probably 8,000 tons of corn ensilage were preserved. 

 The reports from these various experiments were nearly 

 all of them favorable, many of them very enthusiastic, 

 as to its economy and value. Some very extravagant 

 estimates were made as to the tons of corn raised upon 

 an acre, but these estimates were soon reduced to solid 

 fact by the measurement of the compressed contents of 

 the crops in the silos. Forty-six pounds were found to 

 be the weight of a cubic foot of ensilage after compres- 

 sion under 1,000 pounds to the square yard, and the 

 content of the silo was easily measured, and thus the 

 peld per acre determined. The yields noted ranged 

 from twenty to thirty- three tons of green corn per acre. 

 Thirty tons may be considered an excellent yield of green 

 corn. This is equal to about five tons of water-free food, 

 which is nearly five times the average yield of dry food 

 per acre of our ordinary meadows. But it must be noted 

 that the dry food of corn ensilage is not as valuable per 

 weight as that from meadow grasses. 



Yet it must be admitted that the success of the silos 

 built in 1880, in the ensilage of green corn, was very re- 

 markable, and gave this new system a respectable stand- 

 ing in American agriculture. But the final verdict upon 

 the system was only given when it was applied practically 

 to the preservation of meadow grasses and thus proved 

 itself worthy of being considered a system in stock feeding. 



The cost of the ensilage at that time was found, m 

 practice, t-o be from sixty-six to seventy-five cents per ton 

 for the harvesting and putting in the silo, and the whole 



