AMERICAN ENSILAGE. 503 



reached an average height of ten feet, and which was cut in Septem- 

 ber. I computed the total of the two crops at twenty tons, and I 

 think it would have been four or five tons more except for the 

 drought. I shall carry my two cows from fall feed to summer pas- 

 ture, with a considerable quantity left over. 



The fact that this fodder could be taken from the pits, packed in 

 casks and sent to England in good condition, is suggestive first, as 

 to the feeding of live cattle in crossing the sea. Would not good 

 corn fodder, packed in casks, be better than hay and more suitable, 

 bulk for bulk ? 



Second, may not persons who live in city or village raise fodder at 

 some distance, permit it to wither on the field, so as to lose its elas- 

 ticity, and then pack it in flour barrels or sugar barrels, using a lever 

 to press it, to be brought in from the farm to the city or village, as 

 needed for the family cow ? 



I am well satisfied that four cows can be maintained on an acre of 

 good land for twelve months, if they are fed with a small ration of 

 cotton-seed meal in addition to the ensilage, and the manure is all 

 restored to the land. It would, perhaps, be more prudent to call the 

 ratio three cows to an acre of good land for twelve months. 



In another aspect this matter of saving green crops for winter fod- 

 der may greatly affect the prosperity of New England farmers. If 

 I have been correctly informed, one of the obstacles to the raising of 

 long-wooled sheep of the finer sorts with entire success, in Vermont 

 and elsewhere in the North, has been the effect upon the staple, at 

 about the middle of its growth, of the change in the habit of the 

 sheep when transferred from the open pasture to the barn, coupled 

 with the entire change in the quality and kind of food thereafter 

 given. 



It has been stated to me whether it is true or not I do not know 

 that during the period when the sheep are becoming accustomed 

 to the changed conditions, a short bit of weak staple is formed, 

 where the fibre breaks when it goes into the combing machine at the 

 factory, thereby greatly increasing the proportion of noils and waste. 

 Now there is no condensed food upon which sheep thrive better than 

 cotton-seed meal, and cotton-seed meal is one of the substances most 

 frequently fed in connection with ensilage. 



It is to be hoped that some Vermont farmer will try the experi- 

 ment of feeding sheep with ensilage and cotton-seed meal, if it has 

 not already been tried, graduating the change from the open field to 

 the barn in such measure as not to affect the condition of the animal 



