10 N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Sta. Bull. 273 



Table 7. MiscellaneotLS cost iteins in raising and harvesting silage com. 



Before harvest: 



Per acre Per ton 



Seed 



Fertilizer 



Gas, oil, repairs 



Total 



Harvesting : 



Twine 

 Gas 

 Oil 

 Repairs, etc. 



Total 

 Cash costs 



costs for silage production, but would be more than offset by the added 

 income possible from 7.5 new cows ; or if no extra cows were kept, the 

 land released from hay could be advantageously used as pasture. 



This same area growing 41 acres of hay and 9 acres of corn would 

 provide roughage for 32 cows. With this combination of crops there 

 would be 464 hours of man labor on hay and 576 hours on silage. The 

 work on hay with some diversity of hay crops could be spread over 

 nearly 5 weeks' time from early-cut grass hay and clover to late-cut 

 rowen. One-third of the work on silage would be manuring and fit- 

 ting before haying started, and the other two-thirds could be fitted into 

 a two weeks' period in the fall. 



If the decision is made to raise silage, the question naturally arises 

 as to how much to grow. Provided there is no desire to increase the 

 size of the herd, an area of silage should be raised that will (1) pro- 

 duce about 3 tons of silage per cattle unit, and (2) provide for a ro- 

 tation of 4 to 6 years including one year of corn, one year of an annual 

 hay or grain crop and 2 to 4 years of hay, depending on soil. In ad- 

 dition, there should still be opportunity to produce some cash crop or 

 product in sufficient amount to be economic. 



Hay: 



The general data for producing hay on the 328 farms are shown in 

 Table 8. These farms produced 1.43 tons per acre on an average of 

 58.5 acres of permanent hay and 1.79 tons per acre on 4.3 acres of 

 annual hay. The greater proportion of the permanent seeding mix- 

 ture was timothy. Oats or oats and peas made up by far the largest 

 part of the annual hay crop. An average of 5.7 acres was seeded per 

 farm each year. Part of this new seeding was manured after the an- 

 nual hay was removed, and some was also applied to the annual hay 

 crop. By far the largest amount of manure was applied for silage 

 corn. Where manure was plentiful a large part of all the hay land 

 was also top dressed with manure, although on the average only one- 

 tenth of the hay area was manured with an application of 11.2 tons 



