ENSILAGE. 211 



season of winter-feeding is there much longer and more 

 trying to the constitution of the animals. 



In the colder Northern States cattle make excellent prog- 

 ress on good pasture, but much of this is lost during the 

 long, cold winter, when they are confined to hay and coarse 

 fodder. Grain is there often thought too expensive for 

 feeding growing cattle, but with ensilage, these cattle, in 

 warm stables, will make a summer growth all the year 

 round. This system put in active operation, would have a 

 remarkable influence on the production of meat, milk and 

 wool, in the Middle and New England States. These 

 States could then fully supply the home demand for meat. 

 Our exports of animal products amounted, for the year 1881, 

 to nearly $175,000,000. These exports are constantly increas- 

 ing, and as we improve our processes of preserving meats, and 

 our system of transportation of live animals and dressed 

 carcasses (the latter is likely to be the principal mode of 

 transportation in the future), the demand is likely to 

 grow in proportion to our facilities. We believe the most 

 profitable part of our farming for the next fifty years will 

 be in the production of meat, milk and wool. An increase 

 in animal products means an improvement in our system of 

 farming an increase in the value of our landed property. 

 Grain-raising, without stock, means a constantly deteriora- 

 ting soil, and an inevitable impoverishment of our resources. 

 This system of ensilage may be made the means of carry- 

 ing a large proportion of stock in grain-raising States, as 

 every acre properly treated under this system will represent, 

 for cattle-feeding, three acres under the old system. The 

 increase of manure will give a larger yield of grain on two- 

 thirds the number of acres. The system of soiling, with 

 the addition of ensilage for winter-feeding, is rounded out 

 into full proportions, and gives a hundred-acre farmer as 

 great a capacity for keeping stock as the three-hundred-acre 

 farmer heretofore. 



