508 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



with half the amount of grain formerly fed with hay, the 

 same cows have averaged over 100 pounds (fifty quarts) 

 more of milk per month than they did on the old diet. 

 Their coats look glossy and sleek, and every indication is 

 that of blooming health. The calves that have been 

 dropped upon the place from silo-fed parents, themselves 

 silo-reared, are pronounced without dissent by the hundreds 

 who visit the place to be of the best quality and in excellent 

 condition. It may be doubted whether another lot of 

 animals equally large, vigorous and healthful at various 

 ages can be found short of a climate that affords pasturage 

 the year round. While much of this condition is due to 

 the fact that the parent herd, both as regards the imported 

 and the native-bred animals, was selected with an eye to 

 constitution and superior physical capacity, their blooming 

 condition is unquestionably due, in a great measure, to the 

 method of feeding. 



"Notwithstanding the undoubted success of ensilage 

 feeding, Mr. Havemeyer and his foreman, Mr. Mayer, admit 

 there are some facts connected with ensilage that are hard 

 to account for. While it appears intprobable that the feeding 

 value of green forage could be improved upon its natural 

 condition when fresh by stowage under pressure in a pit, 

 the experiments at Mountainside Farm raise the question 

 at least to the dignity of a debatable one. When in 

 August last the working force of the farm was concentrated 

 upon the great work of transporting the fifty acres of green 

 corn-fodder from the fields in which it grew, through the 

 giant cutters and carriers, in-to the great pits where it was. 

 to be preserved for the coming year's use, a pit of ensilaged 

 rye-fodder which had been stored earlier in the season, and 

 from which the herd were being fed, gave out. To open 

 a new pit would be to divert the use of the machinery and 

 the time of three or four men from the special work of 

 harvesting, to which all energies were being devoted. Mr. 



